SHADOW
by letters
Summary: The unlikely friends are back and facing the supernatural once again, only this time, it's a tad bit more dangerous.  Izaya's gotten himself into quite a pickle.  Will Shizuo be able to get him out of it?  Happy Halloween!  XD
1. Chapter 1

_Haloo! So I wanted to write a Halloween story, and since a lot of people wanted a sequel to FOXY, I thought I would make this story the same universe. I know some things don't seem coherant at the moment, but I thought it would be kinda fun to start out at the end and then back track! As usual, I didn't get far before things started getting cheeky again, but oh well. :3 So, not sure how "scary" it will actually be. Shoot, I'll be lucky if it's not downright fluffeh! Probably won't be too long, but you never know. Also, I apologize for the lousy editing/spelling...I don't have word and I'm too lazy to edit it on FanFiction. Hope you like!_

_UPDATE: Eh heh, sorry. Had to tweak a sentence._

SHADOWS~~

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><p>Shizuo put his hands against the freezing surface of the large mirror at the end of the dusty, wooden corridor. Mirror was still the only word that could describe it, though what he saw reflected in the cool surface of the glass was not himself. "IZAYA!" His fist unconsciously curled and began beating the mirror in an effort to get the image of the information broker to hear him. Izaya's form was reflected a little further down the hall, curled in the fetal position, his knees tightly against his chest. For a moment, Shizuo feared the worst. "Oi! Izaya! The mirror!" he yelled as loud as he could, still pounding the glass almost hard enough to shatter it. "Come on, flea! I know you can hear me, god damn it!"<p>

Izaya flinched, before his head snapped up in Shizuo's direction. "Shizuo?" he mouthed, slowly rising to his feet. The hallway in his side of the mirror seemed a great deal darker than Shizuo's, and a small twinge of terror went through his chest when he realized that the closer Izaya crept to him, the more hollow and drained of color the black haired man appeared. He'd lost his trade mark, fur trimmed coat somewhere along the way, leaving only his black, v-neck shirt, and now stood directly facing him, gripping his sleeves as if he were cold. Turning his face in the direction of the light from a single lamp illuminating Shizuo's side of the hallway, the blonde man let out an almost sob. Where Izaya's gleaming, burnt red eyes should have been now sat two hollow, black sockets, seemingly staring at him, even though he knew it was impossible. Slowly, Izaya placed his long, slender fingers against the glass, and Shizuo unconsciously moved his over their reflection. "I can't see you!" he whispered fiercely, glancing over his shoulder as if he heard something. "Shizuo, are you there?"

"Izaya, what happened to your eyes? Can you tell me where you are? HOW DO I GET ON THAT SIDE OF THE MIRROR?" Completely panicked, Shizuo yelled so loudly, Izaya quickly lifted his hands in a quieting gesture with a grimace.

"Keep your voice down, you thundering neanderthal!" he hissed, once again turning his head toward the darkened hall way behind him. "She took them, and if you don't quiet down, she'll be back to finish the job! I don't know where the hell I am; I can't see a damn thing, obviously! You said this is a mirror?"

"Something like that. The hallway you're in looks like the same one as mine!" Shizuo considerably lowered his voice, but it was still difficult for him to whisper.

"Where's my body?" Izaya suddenly demanded.

"At your place. Don't worry! Namie is taking good care of it!"

"You gave my body to my secretary?" he gasped in utter horror.

"Well, where else was I supposed to take you? She's the only one used to all your weirdness, you know! I mean, how many people go an get themselves spiritually abducted? And like I said, she's taking good care of you! But...uh...you might have some scratches...and you know...a bump on your head when you wake up," Shizuo muttered, as he scratched the back of his head, sheepishly.

_"What?"_

"I, uh, kinda accidentally dropped you when I was carrying you to Shinra's..."

Izaya lifted his eyebrows and rolled his head instead of eyes. "We'll deal with that later." Shizuo watched as his sightless friend traced his hands along the outside of the full length mirror. "I'm just glad you're here now. I have no idea how to get out of here. You say that you're in the same hall as me?"

"Yeah, that's what it looks like. Are you actually inside the mirror? Maybe I should break it?"

"That's your solution to everything, Shizu-chan," Izaya sighed, placing his hands back against the glass. He was usually pretty good at putting up a brave face even in the most dire of situations, but the taller man could see the worry etched into his face. Honestly, after all they'd been through the past week, Shizuo didn't know a soul who wouldn't be utterly terrified. It was a credit to Izaya's soundness of mind that he was not a sobbing mess on the floor right now. Shizuo once again placed his own hands over his friend's, attempting to be comforting even though he knew Izaya couldn't feel him.

"That's cause it usually works!" Shizuo grinned, trying to sound light hearted. "Don't worry! Now that I know where you are, I'll get you out! I promise!" Izaya smiled a little wanly. He didn't seem to believe him, but he appreciated the encouragement. "I got in touch with Anja; thought she might know what to do. She-," Shizuo startled, and paused. In the blackness that engulfed the hallway behind Izaya, his eyes detected the slightest movement. "What the hell?..."

"What! What is it?" Izaya immediately shrank against the side of the mirror into the corner. It seemed as if he was actually trying to press his body into the wall and disappear. Shizuo shook his head.

"I...I thought I saw something. Guess it was just my eyes playing tricks." Izaya didn't rise again for quite some time, and when he did, Shizuo didn't need to see his eyes to know the unadulterated fear emanating from him. A sheen of sweat now coated his already ghostly white forehead, and his breathing was short and ragged. Shizuo had never seen Izaya like this, and it worried him. "Are you okay?"

"Nevermind," Izaya visibly tried to shake the terror off, placing a hand to his forhead. "Just continue."

"Well, she's the one who told me to look for you here. Said something about...about..." Shizuo craned his head. Something was definitely moving within the shadows. Shizuo swallowed a lump in his throat; he could just barely make out the sillouette of a completely black figure walking quickly towards them from the far end of the hall. "Ummm...Izaya?" The figured faded away only to reappear much closer, mere meters away from the informant and still walking. "Izaya!"

Izaya flinched, his eye lids opened wide making the empty holes in his face seem gaping. He could tell from the alarm in Shizuo's voice that his worst fear had been realized. "Fuck," he breathed, "She heard us!" He slowly turned, feeling rather than seeing the rapidly advancing shadow. Izaya immediately flattened his back against the mirror. "Ooooh shit! Shizuo...?" his voice was shaky, pleading, and Shizuo could see the informant trembling as he pressed himself flat against the glass. "Help?" he begged, still trying to back away from the advancing shadow, even though there was nowhere else to go. Shizuo glanced around, frantically, but there was nothing he could do. He could only watch in horror over Izaya's shoulder, as the shadow once again faded, only to reappear within arm's reach. Both of the men cried out in terror, Izaya being held up by the mirror and Shizuo falling backwards. A tall woman, with tangled, long dark hair covering her face and her body, her head dangling at an unatural angle stood before them. The white kimono she wore was halfway removed, the top part pulled over her emaciated waist, and the blood dripping down her torso stained the front of it. With a terrible clicking sound, her neck inched up until her head was able to roll awkwardly back, enough so that a roving, red eyeball was able to fix itself on Izaya, who was completely cornered. "Shizuo, fucking HELP me!" Izaya's frightened scream made Shizuo's nerves feel like they were on fire. He immediately sprang back up and began beating the mirror again.

"Izaya!" He yelled. With another audible click, the woman's eye flickered to Shizuo, as if she could see him, and a euphoric smile showing every tooth spread across her sunken face. Shizuo felt his blood turn to ice at the deathly, and somewhat familiar, stare, and it was kind of pissing him off. "Back off!" he warned with a growl, hitting his fist against the glass. But he had no means to back up his threat. The woman blinked at him, before looking back down to Izaya. A bony and gnarled hand darted out and gripped Izaya by the throat. Shizuo could only watch helplessly, as his friend was roughly slid up against the glass until his feet no longer touched the floor.

"Shizuo! Do something!" Izaya clawed at the hand quickly tightening around his airway. Shizuo roared in frustration and ground his teeth as the woman glanced back sideways at him again, as if in amusement. "Shizuo! Ple-!" The woman gave the back of his head a sound rap on the glass by jerking Izaya forward and slamming his body back with an other worldly force, effectively silencing him. Shizuo could see a trail of blood from where his head had impacted slowly ooze down the length of the mirror. Izaya choked out a groan.

"IZAYA!" Shizuo slammed both his fists over and over into the mirror. As if to taunt him, the blood covered woman slammed Izaya against the glass again, the force of the blow thundering in Shizuo's ears. The informant's hands slipped lifelessly from around her wrist and fell limply to his side. Shizuo was at his witt's end. With an enraged roar, he brought his forehead to the glass with enough force to make it crack. Feeling a little dizzy from the impact, Shizuo became faintly aware of a burning sensation against his chest. Looking down, he gripped the necklace Anja, the old gypsy woman, had given him through his white, button up shirt. The ghoulish woman was staring at him again, but she was no longer smiling. She threw Izaya's abused body to the side like a rag doll, and he hit the wall with a loud thud before crumpling to the floor. Shizuo bared his teeth in fury as she leaned forward to peer at him through the mirror. Her neck let out another sickening crack as she tried to crane her head to get a better look. The woman seemed to be trying to see the necklace he was clutching. She let out a loud sigh which echoed throughout the hall, and Shizuo could feel a cold wind blow through his hair. Her sickly, happy smile spread across her face again as she withdrew. With the same earily fast pace, the woman began to walk away, deftly snatching one of Izaya's legs by the ankle, and dragging his limp body behind her. The woman's form slowly turned to back to a black shadow, as they both began to dissappear into the darkness. "NO!" Shizuo screamed. "IZAYA!" The necklace was giving off so much heat now, it was searing his skin. As the blonde man watched his friend be dragged away to almost certain doom, total desperation overtook him, and with a loud cry, he threw himself at the mirror. Summoning all of his brute strength, he crashed his head into the already cracked surface once more. It shattered into hundreds of tiny slivers. Fading fast from the massive trauma he'd just caused his head, Shizuo was only dimly aware of falling, before blacking out completely.

**_"Now you both belong to me..."_**


	2. Chapter 2

_Hooray...the set up...and arguably a slow one. ^^ Let's see where this road takes us! Thank you for reading!_

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><p>"IZAYA, YOU GET YOUR SCRAWNY, LITTLE ASS BACK HERE!" Shizuo's booming voice seemed to shake the very streets of Ikebukuro. The buildings almost visibly quaked in fear, as Shizuo threw yet another large object at the giddy information broker he was currently chasing. Izaya easily side-stepped the vending machine full of snacks, and it crashed into a municipal building, taking a fire hydrant out on it's way. The high pressured water immediately shot up from the broken concrete, drenching everything within the vicinity. He quickly danced out of the cascades of falling water, raising the top of his short-sleeved hoody.<p>

"Neh~ You're so destructive nowadays, Shizu-chan!" Izaya called from a distance as the blonde man paused to take a breath. "I really can't imagine what has reduced you to such a fuss!"

Shizuo strode towards him, ripping a street sign out of the ground on his way. "You can't, huh?" he growled, his lips curling in a menacing smile. "Well then come over here, and I'll tell you." Izaya raised his eyebrows at the implication with an almost manic grin. He was obviously having too much fun with this.

"No can do, my Shizu-chan!" he laughed, shoving his hands in his pocket and rolling his shoulders. "I just love life too much!" He quickly ducked as the street sign flew into the wall right above him. "Fun, fun, fun, FUN!" he squealed, taking off again with a clap of his hands.

"You god damn flea!" Shizuo roared, sprinting after him.

"I really...don't know how you...can run so fast when you smoke all those cigarettes...Shizu-chan!" Izaya said between breaths over his shoulder. "It boggles the mind!"

"It's cause I want to pound your freakin' skull in that badly!" Shizuo yelled back.

"OOoooh, so scary!"

"You're DEAD!"

Suddenly, without warning, Izaya stopped and turned to face him. Shizuo had to flail his arms to try and stop himself from crashing into the shorter man, as he came skidding to a halt. He stopped just in time, his nose almost touching the informant's.

"What the F-!"

"I need you to go to this club with me," Izaya trilled, as if everything was quite normal and Shizuo hadn't just been trying to cause him great bodily harm. Pulling a flyer from his pocket, he didn't seem to mind at all that Shizuo's face was mere centimeters away from his, and it was really throwing Shizuo off. The blonde man wrinkled his eyebrows at the colorful ad for a night club Izaya was now holding directly in front of his eyes. He snatched it out of his hand, crumpling it in an angry fist.

"Hell no! Why would I go to a freakin' club with you! And stop changing the subject! Who the fuck said you could sell my socks on the stupid internet! The ones I was supposedly wearing when I "vanquished" the serial killer?"

"Oh, that's what you're mad about?" Izaya sighed and looked away. "How boring. Really, Shizuo, I just wanted to see if someone would buy them. Would it ease the pain of parting with your precious footies if I split the money with you 50/50?" Shizuo's eyes grew large.

"Y-you mean someone actually bought them?"

Izaya favored him with a criminal smile. "Yeah, and you wanna know the really strange thing? It was a 65 year old man! I really can't say what he might want with your socks, but who am I to judge one's fet-" Izaya had to quickly swing his head out of the reach of Shizuo's fist. "It's really your fault, you know. It's way to easy to scale that old fire escape, and you always leave your back window unlocked. You're lucky all I took were your socks! Although, really..." Izaya paused and placed an introspective hand under his chin, "I should have taken your toothbrush...or your underwear! Ah, we could have been RICH, distinguished gentlemen, Shizu-chan!"

"You god damn flea! Stop messing with my stuff and stay out of my apartment!" Shizuo bellowed.

"Fine, fine, fine! Tell you what. You go to this club with me, and I promise never to filch your mundane possessions again. How does that sound?"

Shizuo uncrinkled the flyer in his fist. In the picture shown, he could see colored lights and a mist with a crowded dance floor full of young people who were scantily clad, to say the least. It seemed to have a slightly campy, Gothic theme, and the text looked like it had been written in blood. Arching one of his still brown eyebrows high into the air, Shizuo looked back up at the raven haired man, who was smiling at him expectantly. He chuckled, drawing a cigarette from the chest pocket of his bartending uniform. Even though the bar he used to work at had closed down after Yoshi's death, Shizuo had so many sets of the standard work wear that he continued to wear them even at his new job. Luckily, Kadota had known a debt collector looking for a bodyguard, and there really couldn't be a better arrangement. Finally, Shizuo had a job where he could lose his temper all he wanted, and it was never really a bad thing. He took a long drag and blew the smoke in Izaya's face. The informant's smile didn't falter, but his nose twitched ever so slightly. "Heh, I wouldn't have taken you for someone who was in to this sort of nonsense!"

"Oh come on! Aren't you even slightly curious? And you're still minus one girlfriend, you know. Maybe you could find one here!" The words always rolled off of Izaya's tongue quickly and effortlessly. Shizuo usually had to pause for a moment to process it before answering. He scowled.

"You can't honestly expect me to believe you want me to go to some silly night club with you so we can pick up girls. Come on, Izaya! This is the kind of place high schoolers go to pretend they're vampires! What's the catch?"

"Catch? Catch? There is no catch, Shizu-chan! Just how evil do you think I am?" Shizuo stared at him a bit blankly before Izaya waved a hand. "Never mind, point taken. But seriously, I want to see it and I don't want to look like a total creeper showing up by myself."

"Oh, you'll look like a creeper whether I'm there or not!" Shizuo assured him. Izaya leered at him.

"Whatever. So, will you go?"

"Fuck no!"

Izaya shrugged and lightly bumped his shoulder as he brushed past him. "Fine, but the next time you leave your window unlocked, and your underoos go missing, just remember...It won't be the gnomes that took them."

"ARRGH! It's frickin' summertime and the apartment's air conditioner keeps breaking! I HAVE to keep opening that window, otherwise it's like a damn oven! Cut me some slack!"

"You had a chance is all I'm saying!" Izaya chirped without looking back.

Shizuo gave an irritated sigh, throwing his head back in frustration. "Izaya! Wait!"

Izaya spun around on his heel with a triumphant smirk. "Yeeees~?"

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><p>Later that evening, Shizuo stood in front of the unassuming building that was the address on the flyer. He really wasn't sure what one was supposed to wear to this sort of thing. Really, besides his bartending uniforms, all he had was white shirts and blue jeans, so that's what he wore. As he walked through the air-cushioned doors, he was already regretting agreeing to this as the odd sensation of mist filled his nose and the flashing strobe lights made him squint. The strange beat of the electro music the DJ was playing was low key, almost hypnotic, but the volume on the speakers in the room were jacked up so high, it was currently blasting his ear drums. Shizuo was finding it very hard to get a handle on his surroundings with all of the sensory overload. Thankfully, the place wasn't that crowded. Maybe it was still too early in the evening. Seeing several drinks in people's hands, he decided that was a good place to start.<p>

"This is stupid," he grumbled, already feeling out of place as several darkly clad individuals glanced his way, before resuming their conversations at the bar, if you could even call it that. There weren't really any seats. Obviously, people didn't come here to unwind at the end of a long day of work for peace of mind; it was more of a drink stand.

"What can I get for you?" A man behind the counter hollered above the noise. Shizuo wrinkled his eyebrows at the excessive eyeliner the man was wearing.

"Ummm...Pepsi?"

The man tilted his head a little, squinting at him with disbelief. "Come on, man! Seriously."

Shizuo frowned. "I really don't drink that much," he admitted.

"Ah, you just like to dance, huh?" the friendly man concluded, folding his arms.

"Er...no, not really," Shizuo hated the way he had to raise his voice so much to be heard. The man laughed at him, to the blonde man's surprise. Normally, it would have angered him, but this whole affair already had his normal sensibilities a little off. He decided he'd better offer an explanation so the man wouldn't think he was totally stupid. "I'm just here to meet a friend."

"Ah! I see, I see. Well, I'll get you that Pepsi."

"Nonsense!" a familiar voice laughed next to Shizuo. "My good friend here will have a Strawberry Daiquiri."

"A what?" Shizuo blinked.

"You'll like it!" Izaya promised with a smirk. "It's all sugary and crap." He turned back to the bartender. "And I will have a Vodka Soda."

"Ooooh, a manly man, are we?" the man winked, good naturedly. Izaya favored him with a sly grin and shrugged, holding out his hands in a surrendering gesture.

"Guilty as charged. I got a reputation to uphold, after all," his voice was a little silky as he lowered his hands to rest on his hips.

"Uh huh," the bartender rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you do, in that get up." He turned away to prepare the drinks, much to Shizuo's relief. Their little flirting session was pissing him off for some reason. He glanced over to see what Izaya actually was wearing and did a double take.

"What the hell, Izaya?" he groaned. Izaya just twirled.

"What? Shizu-chan doesn't like?" Shizuo just scowled at him. The blood red, long sleeved V-neck shirt was a little too form fitting and almost seamlessly flowed into his black pants which were...leather? They certainly didn't leave much to the imagination, either. The whole ensemble was topped off with a shiny, silver, chain link belt, which hung loosely around the informant's hips, seeing as he didn't have much of a waist line. "Say what you want, but you know I look all 'teh sex'!"

"Are you wearing fucking heels?" Shizuo asked accusingly, leaning over to get a better look. Izaya just quickly pivoted the back of his boots away from his line of sight.

"Oi, Shizu-chan! It makes me taller! And really! They are men's foot wear, not 'heels'," he sighed, still having to yell over the music. The man soon returned with their drinks, and Izaya handed him a bill from his wallet. "Keep the change," he waved, before grabbing Shizuo by the shirt sleeve and dragging him to an unoccupied corner high top where there was two chairs. The informant took a large sip of his drink and slammed the glass down on the table, exhaling loudly. Shizuo suspiciously eyed his glass full of pink, slushy stuff with whipped cream on top and a strawberry. "See? This is fun, right?" Izaya quickly began combing over the few people on the dance floor.

"This stuff really has alcohol in it?" Shizuo's eyes widened in disbelief after he took a sip. He quickly began draining the glass.

"Whoah, slow it down, Shizu-chan," Izaya warned, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye before going back to studying the crowded room. "I can't carry you home!"

"Who are you looking for?"

"No one, of course!" Izaya chuckled. "Well, maybe a dance partner."

Shizuo snorted. "Good luck with that, flea!" He was already almost finished with his drink, and could feel a strange, tingling sensation in his cheeks.

"Oh ye of little faith!" Izaya huffed. He crossed his legs in a cocky manner. Suddenly, he lifted his hand and began twirling his index finger around before pointing to a group of girls standing against the other side of the wall. "That one!" he said.

"What?"

"I'm going to dance with that girl in the short, black dress," Izaya informed him. Shizuo looked over to see a very attractive woman with long, blonde hair neatly tied back in a pony tail and wearing large hoop hearings. She was talking and laughing over drinks with her girlfriends. The dress revealed practically every inch of her long, slender legs, and with the black, stiletto heels she was wearing, she was Izaya's height, and definitely good looking by any man's definition. After lifting his eyebrows high and giving his dark haired friend a skeptical look, Shizuo burst out laughing a little louder than he normally would. At the sound, the woman looked over at both of them, and the body guard quickly clamped his mouth shut. After staring a few moments, she smiled broadly, and touched her hair as she turned back to her party, still glancing at them every now and then out of the corner of her eye. Izaya looked over his shoulder at Shizuo, casting his signature, wicked grin. "Oh my," he lazily stretched his hands over his head and took another drink from his glass before standing up, "It's almost too easy!" Shizuo watched as he casually approached the group of woman, interrupting their conversation. It seemed as if he was asking them some sort of question, his hands gesticulating wildly as they always did. At first, two of the women seemed a little stand offish, and eyed their blonde friend somewhat quizzically as Izaya had taken up residence next to her side. Shizuo sighed. He'd been over there for two minutes, and his mouth hadn't stopped running the entire time. He chuckled to himself as he imagined the girls soon growing tired of his constant chatter and walking off, but to his surprise, a minute later the entire group erupted into laughter, Izaya chuckling right along with them. But Shizuo knew better than to think it was genuine. No more than five minutes into it, Izaya had the girl by the hand and was guiding her onto the dance floor. He shook his head with a smile and went to get another drink. Returning to their seats, he leaned against the wall with another Strawberry Daiquiri.

"Well, I'll be damned," he muttered, catching sight of Izaya easily maneuvering the dance floor, leading the blonde woman where to move with his slender hands. Truth be told, he was kind of putting her to shame. Shizuo felt a blush creep up on his face, and decided to stare at the ceiling for a while as he sipped his drink through a straw. He'd never guess that Izaya was a good dancer, but in a way, it did kind of make sense. Since becoming human again, he had proved himself to be quite limber and in tune with his body. Shizuo had seen some pretty impressive acrobatics as the informant evaded him during their all too frequent chases through the city. He looked back down and gawked. The blonde woman had turned her back to Izaya, and the movements their bodies were currently perpetrating were indecent to say the least. Izaya rocked from side to side, his shirt riding up and flashing part of his creamy white hip. His hands left her waist and found hers, lifting them high into the air before letting them slowly sink back down in time with the music. Every now and then, he would whisper something in her ear and she would giggle and lean back into him. Shizuo ground his teeth and quickly looked back up at the ceiling. "What the hell is wrong with me...?" he muttered, knowing no one could hear him above the music.

"Awe, Shizu-chan, you look so lonely there all by yourself!" Shizuo quickly looked back down to see Izaya standing directly in front of him, hands in his back pockets. The blonde woman was hanging on his shoulder, and after saying something in his ear, gave Shizuo a polite wave and walked toward the bathroom. "My new little friend needs to freshen up...I win!" he crowed quite triumphantly as soon as she was out of earshot.

"Bastard," Shizuo growled, but he had a stupid smile on his face. It was probably something to do with how he was almost finished his second drink.

"Now it's your turn."

"Oh, no."

"Yes, Shizu-chan, you have to dance, otherwise you'll be over here looking all stalker-ish, and we can't have that."

"I do not look like a god damn stalker!" Izaya grinned evilly, and Shizuo made a conscious effort to calm himself.

"Look, Shizu-chan, it's not like advanced chemistry. Just look around for someone you like, walk up to them, and introduce yourself. They will dance with you, I promise. You really don't give yourself enough credit in the looks department." Shizuo made a brief effort to look around, before blinking back at Izaya.

"I can't dance."

"Mmm, I can't either. I'm just trying to mimic what I've seen other people do."

"Well, you looked like you were doing pretty alright, out there." Izaya threw back his head and laughed.

"Ah, was Shizu-chan creeping on me, a bit? I'm flattered! Although, I will admit, these pants do make my ass look pretty fly on the dance floor." Shizuo slammed the small table top with his fist, making it tip violently to the side.

"I WAS NOT! And you don't even HAVE and ass!"

"Okay, okay, sh! Sh!" Izaya chuckled, quieting him with a bit of a penitent look on his face. "Here." He walked over to the DJ at the very back of the room and whispered something in his ear, slipping him some money as he did. Returning to the table, he reached out his hand with his palm facing upward. Shizuo quirked an eyebrow.

"Come with me," Izaya urged, grinning from ear to ear. Normally, Shizuo would have told him to get bent, but after two very large Daiquiris, he was a little more open to suggestions. A little curious, he took Izaya's hand and let the informant pull him up from his seat and drag his still hesitating self to the dance floor. He immediately started to get a little worried.

"Uhh...Izaya...What are we doing?"

"We're going to get you a girl to dance with!" Izaya announced, reaching a suitable spot and whirling around to press his body flush against Shizuo's. The body guard almost fell over in shock, his entire face turning a brilliant shade of crimson as Izaya reached his left arm around his neck and guided Shizuo's hand to his hip with the other. If Shizuo hadn't been completely tipsy, his head might have exploded with the utter confusion scrambling his brain at the moment.

"What the- How is this going to help me get a girl to dance with?" he demanded, not liking the funny feeling that coursed through him when his hand felt Izaya's uncovered skin above his belt.

"This is practice!" Izaya leaned into his ear so he didn't have to yell. Shizuo could feel his breath on the side of his face, sending a new blush sweeping over him. "Just follow my lead." Izaya paused a moment to listen to the music before slowly beginning to move his hips back and forth, giving Shizuo time to adjust and follow suit. Izaya leaned toward his ear again. "This is the basics. Quick, quick, slow," as he spoke, Shizuo could feel him sway back and forth twice before doing a slight dip and slide on the third take. He was so busy concentrating on trying to match Izaya's movements that he didn't even notice everyone's eyes were on them. The blonde man really didn't know much about dance clubs or proper dancing etiquette, and in his hazy confusion, he assumed their dancing wasn't too abnormal. Some of the men folded their arms and curled their lips in displeasure, while most of the girls watched, completely fascinated. Once Shizuo figured out at rhythm of sorts, Izaya raised his arms above his head, leaning back so far that Shizuo had to catch him by the small of his back. "See?" Izaya brought himself upright again, his auburn eyes dancing with a strange electricity. "You're doing fine."

"This is dumb!" was all Shizuo could think of to answer him.

"Nonsense!" He quickly spied his previous dance partner and her friends and waved them over with a devious smirk. They happily complied, immediately encircling the duo as Izaya pulled the blonde woman in between them. She squealed with laughter, but was more than happy to be sandwiched between the two present stars on the dance floor. Within a matter of minutes, the entire club seemed to spring to life, as everyone began to dance. Shizuo looked around himself, and grinned, becoming a little more bold in his movements. Hell, if all these didn't have a problem with his dancing, he guessed he was pretty alright. Izaya took a step back and gave a mock salute, before lithely stepping off the dance floor. After all, the goal had more than been met. Shizuo didn't have one, but four girls dancing with him. When the song was over, everyone cheered and returned to their drinks for a short break before the next song began to play. Shizuo looked around, and spotted Izaya talking to a woman near the back door. She certainly looked a little out of place. Her long, black hair was swept up on top her head, exposing a long, extremely pale neck, and she wore a long, white evening gown that had a slit running all the way up her leg to her hip. She was extremely tall, so much so, that she curved her spine in an almost unnatural way to bring herself closer to eye level with the informant.

'Wow...' Shizuo thought. Izaya seemed completely undeterred by the fact that he had to tilt his head back quite a bit to look her in the face, and his audacity impressed him. 'He's really going all out, tonight, I guess.' Shizuo's thoughts changed, however, when he saw Izaya take a business card from his back pocket, and hand it to her for inspection. Shizuo ground his teeth. So Izaya really had just dragged him here for some shady business deal, or who knows what! That little flea! He was probably supposed to just "bump into her by accident", and needed a wing man so as not to look suspicious! He was about to go give him a piece of his mind, when he saw Izaya gesture toward him. The woman's head snapped in his direction, and Shizuo immediately forgot that he was angry. Her wide eyes were a strange, grayish color, and in the bad light, seemed almost colorless. They made Shizuo think of the way someone's eyes looked when they were dead; large, blank, and unseeing. She continued to stare at him a moment, a strange smirk lifting the corners of her mouth. Shizuo suddenly had a very, very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was something wrong with this woman; he knew it. And the minute he knew it, all he could think of was getting Izaya as far away from her as possible. The woman drew a cigarette out of her clutch and gestured toward the back door. 'Oh no, no, no...' Shizuo chanted in his head. There was no way Izaya was going anywhere alone with her. He immediately strode after them. After all, he could always just say he was stepping out for a smoke, right? Shizuo drew a deep breath, almost shuddering at the thought of looking into those lifeless eyes again, and opened the door. He was immediately met with a cool breeze as he stepped out into the empty parking lot. Izaya and the strange woman were nowhere to be found. Utterly confused as to how they could have disappeared so quickly, Shizuo walked forward until his foot stepped on something small and metal with a crunch. Looking down at his feet, he saw Izaya's cellphone lying broken on the ground.

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><p><em>Next chapter will probably get a little crazy again. Please forgive me for the dance scene. It was good fun to write. ^^;; <em>


	3. Chapter 3

Shizuo had waited in the parking lot all night. He declined when the pretty blonde woman and her friends had tried to persuade him to go to a house party. The blonde woman had quickly suggested they just return to her home, instead. She had been a bit put out when he ignored her obvious insinuations, and left in a huff. He waited until the night club closed down, and the last of the employees locked the doors. The man who had tended the bar gave him a jovial wave. Shizuo asked if he'd seen where Izaya went. He hadn't. He waited in the dark parking lot, lighting smoke after smoke. At one point, he busied himself collecting the fragments of Izaya's cell phone and putting them in a grocery bag he found blowing around the lot. He waited until the skies began to light with rosy hues of pink, as the sun began it's ascent. Shizuo waited the entire night, but Izaya never returned.

His eyes, blood shot and weary, scrunched shut as he rose. He was out of cigarettes. Shizuo rolled his neck, sounding several loud pops. Tom wasn't expecting him until later in the morning, and not knowing what else to do, Shizuo headed for Izaya's loft, praying to the gods he would be there.

'It's logical? Right?' Shizuo mused to himself. After hanging around Izaya so much, he found himself trying to work through things in his mind a little more clearly. 'I mean, maybe he just went home with that woman and forgot to tell me...' Shizuo ground his teeth a little at that thought. If that flea was going to go sleep with some creepy, monstrous woman with funky eyes, he could have at least told him! 'She wasn't even that GOOD looking! She was just creepy as hell! "TCH!" Shizuo rolled his eyes. 'Just that louse's type, I guess!'

As much as he wanted to believe Izaya was just being inconsiderate, a nagging doubt itched in the back of his mind, and he found himself walking faster and faster toward Shinjuku. He was soon running up to the building where the informant lived, ignoring the other residents and the odd looks they gave him on their way to work, Shizuo practically sprinted to the elevator. His hands shook as he hastily punched in the security code, whether from lack of sleep, too much niccotine, or something else, he couldn't tell. The elevator never moved so slowly; he really should have taken the stairs. Even standing before Izaya's door, Shizuo felt no reassurance. A cold chill ran up his spine at the overwhelming stillness. He tried the knob.

"Dammit!" he spat. Locked. Shizuo wasted no time in pounding on the door. "Oi! Izaya!" There was no sound of movement, but right as the bodyguard raised his leg to take the door off its hinges, he heard the click of the lock. Shizuo paused, slowly lowering his foot as the door knob began to twist. 'Think, think, think, think, THINK!' Shizuo's brain was suddenly in a whirl. Izaya WAS home after all. That meant that he had been left hanging all night for probably no damn good reason. 'I should just punch his lights out, right when he opens the door! Wait, no...He'll be expecting that...' While Shizuo was lost in his frantic flurry of thoughts, the solid door began inching open. Shizuo snapped out of it and watched intently, before growing tired of how long it was taking. "Would you knock it off, already!" he yelled, giving the door a swift kick. It flung open to reveal nothing but darkness. The oppressive blackness was so thick, it was suffocating. The bodyguard was not one to usually hesitate, but he was finding himself very reluctant to walk through the door. "Izaya?" he called again. There was still no reply. Shizuo took a deep breath, and stepped into blindness. "God damn light switch!" he cursed, feeling his way along the walls. "Where the hell is it!" There was a loud commotion upstairs. It sounded like a door rattling. Shizuo froze, quickly realizing it was coming from the direction of Izaya's bedroom. Shizuo grit his teeth and plowed forward until his face collided with the side of the stairs. He quickly found his way around the banister and bounded up to the second floor. Opening the first door on his left, his hand quickly sought out the light switch he knew would be right next to the door. He could hear the low humming of the pump to the fish tank, but nothing else. His fingers found the small, sliding panel, and he immediately shoved it up to the maximum brightness. The lights over his head were immediately ablaze, but in the moment the room was lit, Shizuo felt a cold chill run down his spine, and he could have swore he heard someone scream. It almost sounded like...

There was another loud crash, and the blonde man wished his eyes would hurry up and adjust. After another few moments of silence, Shizuo could finally see, and blanched at the sight before him. The room was in shambles; the dresser overturned, clothes strewn everywhere. A lamp lay shattered, and even the mattress was askew, halfway onto the floor. The closet door rattling quickly caught his attention. The blonde man leapt over the debris on the floor and without thinking, slid the door to the side with a loud slam. He knew that the resistance he'd barely felt wasn't in his imagination when a body flew with the door sideways and into the side wall of the closet with a yelp. "I-" Before he could finish his sentence, the person quickly jumped to his feet and yanked him forward before pushing back on his chest, simultaneously striking towards the bottom of his legs. With a loud thud, Shizuo's back crashed on the floor of the closet, and he felt cold steel slash mercilessly at his neck. Fortunately, he has his wits about him enough to push away the arm, and the knife wasn't able to cut deep enough to end him. Even so, he could feel something warm and wet coating his chest. Before the person in question could make a second attempt to cut his life short, the body guard quickly found two slender arms and pinned them as he flipped his attacker and straddled him. "IZAYA!" The light filtering in from the bedroom lit the informant's face, but Shizuo still barely recognized the person under him, even though he was wearing the same clothes from last night. Izaya's rust colored eyes were narrow, and glinting dangerously, his teeth clenched and bared in a terrible grin that had no trace of his usual good humor. Finding that he couldn't move, he let out a high pitched laugh, almost a scream, and it made Shizuo's blood run cold. The blonde man was quickly beginning to panic, as Izaya kept laughing and began violently shaking enough to slam the back of his dark haired head into the wooden floor over and over. "Oi! Flea! Snap out of it!" Shizuo yelled, and giving his wrist a firm rap, sent the switchblade clattering across the floor. He then quickly lifted Izaya's head away from the floor to stop the crazed man from further injuring himself. Gripping both sides of his pale face, it took every ounce of restraint not to shake him. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" A drop of his blood landed on Izaya's face, and he startled. Slowly, the insane smile left and was replaced by a look of terror.

"Sh-Shizuo?" his voice was hesitant, as if he were still unsure. More blood was dripping onto him from Shizuo's neck, and the blonde man quickly let go of his arms. Izaya's eyes were huge, his pupils abnormally large, and the dark circles under them and red liquid streaking down his face only accented his paleness. Shizuo grimaced as he sat back on his heels, putting a hand to his neck. Izaya looked liked the living dead as he slowly sat up, putting a hand to his face. Still staring straight ahead, he rubbed the blood between his fingers in a daze.

"Yeah, it's me," Shizuo affirmed, a little wary. He wasn't used to seeing the smaller man so out of it.

"What happened...?" Izaya's voice shook, as he slowly tried to stand.

"I was about to ask you the same thing!" Shizuo growled, reaching a hand out to steady his friend. He blushed when Izaya's knees buckled and he practically fell into his arms. "What the hell? What's up with you?" He blinked when Izaya wrapped his arms around his back and clung to him tightly, burrying his face in his chest. He was still trembling.

"I don't know..." he whispered, turning his head slowly back and forth.

"You gotta know something!" Shizuo insisted. "You freakin' tried to kill me when I opened the door! What were you hiding from?" He pushed the informant out to arm's length and looked him in the eye. Izaya grimaced and shook his head again.

"I...don't remember." As he spoke, his eyes closed, and his body started to sink to the ground. "Shizuo, I...I can't see."

"Eh? Izaya!" Shizuo lifted the limp form in his arms, bridal style. "What the hell is going on? You're acting like you're..."

_Drugged!_

Shizuo practically roared in rage as he stomped out of the closet, slamming the door shut hard enough to made it come loose from its hinges. 'They are so dead! They are so DEAD!' Whoever had done this was so dead! He stopped his outburst when he felt Izaya startle. Grimly, he stared downward, wondering what he should do. It was then that he noticed the deep scratches marring the wood around the finger hold. His eyes traveled along the criss-crossing lines and, as an afterthought, gripped Izaya's hand and brought it eye level. The tips of his long fingers were mangled and bloodied, his nails cracked and splintered. It suddenly became very clear to him that Izaya had been trying very hard to keep something out, and that something had been trying just as hard to get in. The real question of the moment was whether that 'something' was still in the apartment, somewhere. It was best they left, of that he had no doubt. "Alright, flea, we're going to the hospital."

"No," Izaya practically moaned, gripping his head as if in pain. "Take me to Shinra's. I'll tell you where he lives."

"Sh-Shinra's?" Shizuo echoed in surprise. That psycho government therapist he had to see for anger management? Why would Izaya want to go there?

"I'll explain later. Please!"

"You got it," Shizuo tried to sound as reassuring as possible, deciding to save his questions for later. He quickly carried him back into the darkness of the hall, but at least he could see the a light switch this time. He quickly flicked it on so as to not kill them on his way down the steps and nearly fell over. Directly in front of them was a trail of black foot prints leading down the stairs. "Dammit" he cursed, not really knowing what else to do except follow them to the exit. To his surprise, the footsteps veered to the left and ended at a closed coat closet, the one directly adjacent to the front door. Shizuo grit his teeth, and shuffling Izaya to where he had a better grip, quickly wrenched the front door open, never letting his eyes leave the closet door. He slammed the door and took off running down the hall. Unfortunately, he heard the door immediately open and the sound of rapid foot steps come rushing up behind him. Shizuo was about look over his shoulder, but Izaya quickly grabbed his head.

"Don't look!" he commanded.

"W-what? Why?" Shizuo panted, as he ran. He received no answer, but he knew better than to not listen to Izaya when he was being serious. The elevator was coming into view, but with something hot on their heels, Shizuo opted for the steps and busted through the push door and started making his way down. However, trying to hastily ascend steps and carry a body at the same time proved to be a little tricky, and he lost his footing. Tucking Izaya close to his chest and shielding his head, Shizuo closed his eyes and grit his teeth as they bounced on his back all the way down to the third floor landing. Before he could open his eyes, he felt Izaya's hands on him once again, this time covering his eyes.

"Don't look!" he said again. "You've got to listen to me! No matter what, don't look!"

It took every ounce of self control for Shizuo not to open his eyes until he was standing. He felt with one hand for the railing, and only opened them once they were heading down again, albeit a little slower. Shizuo still heard the footsteps following them, and he could feel someone closely breathing on the back of his neck. Once again, he almost turned his head, but stopped when Izaya blindly swiped at his face. It made his hair stand on end, but every time he even so much as thought about it, Izaya would spring to life again to remind him. None of this was making any sense, and Shizuo ran as quickly as he could without falling again until they were outside. He'd never been so glad to be out of a building before in his life! His relief was short lived, as the body in his arms went completely slack, the informant's head rolling limply to the side. It wasn't surprising, really. Izaya had probably just been hanging on long enough until they were out of immediate danger before succumbing to the drugs. Luckily, Shizuo still had that quack doctor's number in his cell from last year, and he quickly dialed it.

"Oh, well, hello there, Shizuo! Long time no-"

"Shinra, where do you live?"

"Uh, what?" Shinra laughed, nervously. "Why would you-"

"Oi, look, shut up and tell me! Izaya told me to take him to you."

"You know Izaya?" Shinra sounded genuinely shocked. "What happened? Is he hurt?"

"I'm not sure. I think someone drugged him." Someone or _something_...

"Oh my...well, of course you should bring him over. I actually don't live too far away from you in Ikebukuro," and with that, Shinra gave him well enough directions. It still took a while to reach his building, because he could not take the subway back, but he tried to run the whole way to make up for lost time. They garnered many strange looks along the way.

'God damn, this looks retarded!' Shizuo mentally cursed. 'A guy running through the city holding another guy!' He had kind of forgotten that his neck and shirt were both covered with blood from his neck wound, but it wasn't exactly like he could take back roads; he didn't want to get lost. After what seemed like an eternity, the blonde man finally found the address. He tapped his foot the entire way up the elevator and stared in silent wonder when a woman in a black leather, biker suit and a yellow helmet with cat ears was standing there when the door opened. "Uh...hi." Shizuo would have given a little wave if his arms weren't full. She didn't speak, but she gestured for him to follow her, leading him into the living room. The body guard laid Izaya's still unconscious form on the sofa, a pained groan escaping the informant's lips. It kind of bothered Shizuo that he was in pain, but at the same time, it was good to hear that he was still alive.

"Shizuo! Hello! Let me introduce you to my dearest Celty-san!" Shinra appeared from the kitchen with a cup of tea, wearing a long, white lab coat. The woman typed something on a small messenger and shoved it in his face. "Ah, but I was only being polite! Alright, alright, introductions later. Let's have a look at what Izaya's gotten himself into this time." Shizuo stepped to the side, and the doctor wasted no time in setting down his mug, slapping an oxygen mask from a nearby tank on his face, and removing his coat. After checking his pulse, he rolled up the informant's shirt sleeve and swabbed the inside of his elbow with alcohol. He then rather roughly stuck a syringe in the disinfected area.

"Hey, watch it!" Shizuo warned, taking a step forward at the sight of blood trickling down the white arm. Shinra looked at him and quirked an eyebrow.

"What? This won't hurt him. Relaaaax~ no worries! I've done this before."

"Yeah...what's up with that, anyway? I thought you were just a shrink!"

"Mmm, no, actually, I'm not even a medical doctor," Shizuo sounded quite chipper as he filled the syringe with Izaya's blood. "In fact, I actually was counseling you because I got caught practicing medicine without a license and had to do community service."

Shizuo rolled his eyes. They were so insistent he show up every week to talk to a guy who wasn't even a real doctor? "Tch!" was all he had to say to that. "Is he going to be okay?"

Shinra shined a small flash light in both of the Izaya's eyes. "Well, as you say, he's certainly doped up on something. I just can't tell what, yet. Let me run some tests on this blood sample. I'll see what I can find."

"He said something about not being able to see before he passed out."

"Hmm, could be a side-effect, I guess. How do you know Izaya, anyway?"

"Couldn't I ask you the same thing?" Shizuo countered, feeling very proud of himself.

"Heh," Shinra shrugged, showing his lack of interest. "I suppose you could. I just didn't think you'd ever be someone in need of his services."

"I'm not!" Shizuo quickly corrected him. "We're just friends." He felt a little uncomfortable at the look Shinra threw him.

"I didn't know Izaya Orihara had 'friends'!" he chuckled. "Good for him!"

Shizuo didn't much care for his tone, but he let it slide as he was currently the one treating him. "Well, I'd better get home and get cleaned up for work now...but...I could maybe stop by later tonight?"

"Of course, of course! But before you go, let me take care of that neck wound you have."

"Oh yeah..." Shizuo touched the knife wound unconsciously, only now remembering he had it.

"Don't touch it with your grubby fingers!" Shinra wailed, reaching up and slapping at his offending hand. "It'll get infected!"

"I really think you should just worry about Izaya," Shizuo interjected. Shinra favored him with an indulgent smile.

"Don't worry. Your boyfriend's going to be totally fine."

"That's not! I mean, we're not-!"

"Rest assured, Izaya's in good hands!" Giving up with a growl, Shizuo seated himself in an arm chair and let Shinra quickly patch him up, not even flinching when he sewed the cut shut with a needle and black thread. After applying a bandage over his handiwork, Shinra gave a nod of approval. "All set to go!" he announced. Shizuo found it kind of odd that he didn't seem to care how Izaya and himself got into this state, but he just nodded and took his leave.

"Thanks, Shinra. I owe you one."

"Nonsense, nonsense! I expect to see you later, hmm?"

"Yeah..." He walked out of the living room and bowed to the woman in the motorcycle suit on his way. "Thank you for taking care of the flea. I have to go to work now, but I'll be back later," he told her.

She nodded and typed something, showing the screen to Shizuo. "It's no trouble. Shinra lives for this sort of thing," she comforted, adding, "and besides, now that Izaya's unconscious, I have the night off!"

"Oh, you work for him?" Shizuo asked.

"A good deal of the time, yes," she typed back. "I'm a courier, and he keeps me pretty busy fetching and bringing him things, but that's really all I can tell you."

"Ah, I don't even wanna know, trust me!" Shizuo smiled at her, and she tilted her head and shrugged in a friendly way. "Make sure he doesn't sneak off before I get back. Later, Celty-san."

She gave him a wave, and Shizuo stepped into the elevator, trying to squash the anxiety within himself. What in the world had happened this morning?


	4. Chapter 4

_Beholdeth! A true miracle! I somehow managed to eek out a chapter, this week! ^^ Crazy, man! Hope you like!_

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><p>"You really could have waited until I actually asked for the money before throwing a chair at the man," Tom sighed as he walked alongside the blonde man, ever dressed as a bartender.<p>

"Sorry," Shizuo said rather unapologetically. "Kinda jumpy. Didn't sleep so well last night." He lit a cigarette, and there was silence for a few moments before his cell phone rang. Shizuo flipped it open. "Yeah, Shizuo here...Oh, hi Namie-san...Yeah his phone's broken...The bedroom? Oh, I can explain that...No, it wasn't me!...Yes, the flea's fine, but he won't be back today, and I think it'd be best if you left, as well..." Shizuo held the phone away from his ear as the irate woman's voice suddenly became quite loud with fury. "No, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you wrote yourself a check if it's payday! Okay, I'll be sure to tell him that...But if he dies, you won't get paid anymore, Namie-san." He winced as the cranky secretary began yelling again, and then abruptly hung up. "Man, and people say I'm scary..."

"What's up?"

"Oh, Izaya's secretary. Izaya's not in today and she was...concerned." Tom nodded and they continued on their path. After a moment of thought, Shizuo glanced at his employer and scratched the back of his head. "Hey, Tom-san...You don't believe in ghosts and demons...stuff like that, do you?"

Tom laughed loudly, and slapped Shizuo on the back. "Ah, I see, you're gonna try to scare me today, huh? Well it won't work! Believe me, I've heard every legend this city has to offer! I've even seen the Headless Rider several times, so it's not gonna work!"

"You've seen the headless rider?" Shizuo was immediately sidetracked. "What did she look like?"

"She wears a motorcycle suit and a yellow helmet with cat ears all the time, but they say there's nothing underneat the helmet, just black smoke."

Shizuo paled a little bit and said nothing. Tom looked at him quizzically. "Wow, you actually look a little scared!" he mused. Shizuo still wouldn't speak, and Tom slapped his forehead as if in pain. "Oh, come on, man! Aren't you a little old to be rattled by ghost stories? I stopped believing in that sort of shit when I was ten!" He quirked an eyebrow at his bodyguard when Shizuo just looked the other way. "What's going on with you? You have a bad dream or something?"

"I guess," Shizuo muttered, not really wanting to relay the events that took place earlier that morning.

"Awe, poor baby," Tom took on a very patronizing tone. "Want some milk and cookies? Will that make all the bad baddies go away?"

"Screw you!" Shizuo growled with a smile, giving him a light shove; a light shove from Shizuo Heiwajima being enough to almost knock Tom off his feet. He caught himself on the side of a building, and straightened his shirt.

"Seriously, Shizuo, you're even more worked up than usual..." He combed his hands through his dreadlocks and seemed thoughtful for a moment, before slyly looking at Shizuo out of the corner of his eye. "Oh, I know why," he declared.

"Why?" Shizuo asked absently, already wrapped up in his own thoughts.

"It's that Izaya Orihara fellow, isn't it?"

"WHAT?" The cigarette dropped from Shizuo's gaping mouth. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know, that guy you always run around with. The one that happens to be the most infamous information broker in the entire city. I'm telling you, man...it's not going to end well." After a minute, Tom took Shizuo's silence as an acknowledgement. In truth, Shizuo was busy mentally panicking about the possible insinuations. "I mean, I see that bandage on your neck as plain as day. Everyone knows he's nothing but trouble. Believe me, even I've had dealings with Izaya. He's about as shady as you get!"

"Yeah, you know," Shizuo lit another replacement cigarette and breathed out a stream of smoke in relief. He was worried that Tom was implying...well...never mind. "Everyone keeps telling me that, but I don't really believe it...And I just nicked myself shaving," he lied, touching the bandage on his neck lightly.

"Uh-huh. And why is that? Because Izaya tells you not to?" Tom rolled his eyes, and Shizuo felt a flare of anger that he quickly squashed.

"No," he tried not to growl. "If anything, that stupid flea wants people to think he's wreaking absolute havoc on the city! I've just never...personally seen him do anything that bad..."

"Oh, damn, he's leading you around by the nose, isn't he?" Tom shook his head as his body guard threw him a confused look. "Shizuo, I've told you before, and I'll tell you again, he's the master of deception. You're probably part of some weird scheme he's hatched up in his sneaky little brain. How did you two even meet?"

"Eh, I helped him out in a pinch, once."

"Oh, wait, yeah, I heard about that! Right before I hired you, you like, saved him from the serial killer, right? That crazy loon with the gun?"

"Y...yeah." Shizuo hadn't really been referring to that, but he couldn't tell Tom the entire truth. He felt a little guilty seeing as it was really the other way around with the saving, but he knew Izaya wouldn't appreciate him damaging his reputation for being heartless.

"So he probably keeps you around for extra protection, then."

"I doubt it. Izaya's tough," Shizuo nodded. "He's pretty mean with that little flick blade of his. I'm sure he can take care of himself."

"So, what is it, then? With Izaya, there's always an angle. The man isn't 'friends' with anybody."

Shizuo fell silent for a moment, trying to think of an answer that would satisfy his overly interested employer. He suddenly remembered a past conversation with the devious informant in question and piped up. "Umm... He finds me amusing?" he offered.

Tom practically roared with laughter. After he was finished wiping the tears from his eyes, he turned to Shizuo again. "Oh, that's rich!" he wheezed between chuckles. "I'll buy that for a dollar. Now, come on. Next visit is just around the block."

Shizuo nodded, and quickened his pace, happy to have the subject dropped. This time he was sure to wait for a nod of approval from Tom before grabbing the next uncooperative debtor by the collar and tossing him out a window. A few more stops after a quick lunch, and Tom yawned loudly, scanning his PDA.

"Well, that looks like it for today," he sighed, stretching his arms over his head. "Thanks for your hard work. I'll see you in a couple of days, eh? And, oh!" He quickly reached in his back pocket and took out a few bills. "It's pay day!"

Shizuo shook his head. "You paid me last week, Tom-san." Tom blinked at him for a moment, and smiled as he pushed his glasses higher on his nose.

"Bonus, then," he smiled, handing him the money. "You do good work, Shizuo. Now, go home and relax! Don't go running around with Izaya, getting all mixed up in god only knows what."

Shizuo smiled, and tucked the bills away in his shirt pocket. "Okay...I'll see you later, Tom-san," he called as he turned to run off to do just that. He hadn't received a call all day about Izaya's condition, and the blonde man was anxious to hear what had happened the night before. He almost knocked a very familiar gypsy woman over as he rounded a corner, stopping just in time.

"Shizuo! Where you go in such hurry?" She laughed, placing both her hands on his shoulders as he skidded to a halt.

"Oi, sorry Anja-san," Shizuo breathed, giving her a smile. "Going to check on the flea. Had a rough night."

The old woman clucked her tongue. "Oh, my, my, he is okay, yes?" Shizuo really liked the way she showed genuine concern for his friend. He was always so used to hearing only negative comments from everyone else, but he supposed Izaya kind of deserved it all the same.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," he assured her. "Anja-san...you know a lot about...supernatural stuff, right?"

"Maybe!" she replied, brightly, a smile lighting her wrinkled face. "Always glad to help, yes?"

"Well...It's just that...I think something really weird happened this morning..." Anja inclined her head indicating for him to continue, and so Shizuo told her the entire story. Seeing as she told fortunes for a living, he didn't fancy she would think him too crazy, but just in case, he added, "And I know it sounds completely insane! But...you know, I was wondering if you'd...heard anything or seen anything lately...Maybe?" He kicked at the ground with his shoe, nervously. Anja seemed lost in thought for a moment, before finally answering.

"Shizuo...bad thing is lady, yes?"

Shizuo blinked at her, not sure what she was asking, exactly. "Umm...He spoke with a woman the night before. We were at some stupid night club. Ha! He dragged me there! I'd never go somewhere like that! It was totally lame!" Shizuo laughed and scratched the back of his head.

Anja shook her head briefly at his nonsense before turning serious again. "I will take look. This feeling...is very bad."

"What?" Shizuo immediately peppered her with questions. "What feeling? Do you see something? Do you know something about that lady? Anja-san, you've got to tell me!"

The old woman patted him on the shoulder. "No, no, Shizuo! No worries! I not know what happening to you and Izaya, but... Last night, I feel great evil enter Ikebukuro."

"E-evil?" Shizuo swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Yes...I feel it before...but last night I feel it again. Angry spirit...I feel it want to hurt people."

"Hurt people? How? And why? What can I do to stop it?"

Anja had a distant look in her pale blue eyes, and she shook her head. "I know not. It very...unclear. But I feel...Izaya in deep trouble again." Shizuo sighed in frustration and Anja looked at him with a knowing smile. "I feel you better to help than I in this, yes?"

"What do you mean?" Shizuo muttered, taking about another cigarette in his agitation.

"You felt spirit. You knew Izaya was in trouble. You have gift, Shizuo."

"Gift? What?" Shizuo furrowed his eyebrows, completely lost.

"I mean, you have second sight! Only you and I could hear Izaya when he was fox. You are sensitive to supernatural."

Shizuo laughed at the absurdity of her claim. "Wha- me? What are you talking about, Anja-san?"

"Oh, you no believe me?" the old woman chuckled. "That fine. It change nothing. But you help Izaya again, yes?"

Shizuo stopped laughing, and grinned at her. "I'll always have that stupid flea's back. Ghost, demons, no matter what! I promise."

She returned his smile. "Ah, good! Good! Izaya, poor boy, he need all help he can get!" The old, gypsy woman began searching through the things her in wooden cart. She withdrew a golden chain upon which a blue stone dangled. Cradling it in her palm for a moment, she held it out to the curious body guard. "Here..." she let the chain coil in Shizuo's open palm. "You have gift, but you may need help, too. This help you reach other side."

Shizuo suddenly felt very suspicious of the necklace in his hand. "Uh...Like it's going to kill me?"

"NO!" Anja covered her mouth trying to stifle her laughter. "No!...well...maybe..."

"MAYBE?" Shizuo immediately dropped the stone and chain as if it were on fire. Anja chuckled again, and bent over to retrieve the item. She pressed it back into Shizuo's unwilling hand.

"This amulet not kill you. But it help you reach spirit world. So...it depend on you to make sure you no die, yes?" her tone suddenly became very worried, and it piqued the blonde man's curiosity. He accepted the necklace and placed it over his head and under his shirt.

"I trust you, Anja-san. If you say I need this, I accept it. Thank you for your help."

The old woman smiled at him, kindly. "You such good boy, Shizuo. I sure you find what you seek."

"Ugh..." Shizuo groaned in mock exasperation. "Don't suppose you're gonna tell me what you're talking about now, huh?"

"Mmmm," she hummed, returning her hands to the handles on her cart. "Why tell what you know already?"

Shizuo threw her a disgruntled look. He would have liked to ask her more about what the hell she was referring to, but the old woman waved goodbye to him and began tottering down the street with her cart. Shizuo shook his head and continued on his way; he really had other things to worry about. And besides, that woman was always full of more questions than answers, but he was glad he at least had something to aid him against whatever nonsense was happening. For reassurance, he clutched the stone around his neck in his hand as he ran. That's right. They'd taken down a serial killer before. He was sure they'd be able to handle this new challenge together, no problem... At least, Shizuo sure hoped so. The doubts were starting to eek their way back into his mind by the time he reached Shinra's building. Celty opened the door before he could even knock. The headless rider looked as startled as he was, and they both took a step back.

"C-Celty-san!" Shizuo gave a little bow. "Sorry about that. I was here to check on Izaya? Is that stupid flea awake, yet?"

She quickly typed something on her screen and held it up to Shizuo's face. "Oh, he's up, alright!" Even as he read the words, Shizuo heard the sound of glass shattering and Shinra yelping. Celty looked over her shoulder, and then shook her head as she typed something else. "You'd better get in there. You're his friend, right? See if you can calm him down. I have to go to work."

It wasn't as if he could tell from reading the words, but something about the woman's demeanor seemed annoyed. Shizuo nodded and stepped aside. He did a double take when he heard the neighing of a horse. She opened a storage room and retrieved a black motorcycle, quickly exiting out a side window. The blonde man blinked. "Well, I'll be damned..." he muttered, quickly returning to the situation at hand. There was another loud crash, and Shizuo hastily started walking toward the back room that the noise was emanating from. He could hear Shinra's muffled voice through the door.

"Izaya! Please! Just calm down! You've got to believe me! I didn't-No! no! no! Not the vase! That was a gift from my dear-"

Shizuo barged in the room, barely ducking in time as a decorative vase with flowers flew over his head, showering him in broken glass, water, and destroyed foliage. He grimaced, and quickly scanned the room. Shinra was huddled in the corner to his right, looking very relieved that Shizuo was now here. Izaya was in the opposite corner next to the bed, wearing absolutely nothing except a pair of red briefs. Shizuo had to fight the compulsion to laugh. Briefs? Really? Oh, the flea was going to hear about this, later. Said informant was currently hunched over and panting, and the blonde man could see every muscle quivering with rage beneath his pale skin. From the look of the wreckage around the room, Shizuo guessed he'd been throwing things for a while. Upon closer inspection, he could see that Izaya's pupils were still dilated, and their color seemed muted, but he could see the anger simmering within them. His thin, white hand quickly sought another object to hurl, and not more than a second later, a glass of tea shattered into the wall between them. Shizuo was a little dumbfounded for a moment at just how bad Izaya's aim was, before stepping forward to take control of the situation.

"What the fuck is going on, here?" he demanded, looking back and forth between the other two occupants of the room.

"Oh, thank god you're here!" Shinra cried, immediately running behind him for shelter. "Izaya's gone crazy!"

Izaya startled a bit at Shizuo's voice, and immediately stood up straight, folding his arms, crossly. "This psychopath did something to me!" He accused, pointing way off to the right of them at no one in particular. "I can't fucking see! Where the hell am I, anyway?"

It would have been funny to see Izaya so utterly helpless and practically naked if Shizuo wasn't so worried. "I didn't do anything! I was just checking you over for other injuries!" Shinra defended. Well, that explained the naked part.

"You lying, son of a-"

"Both of you!" Shizuo took a few steps forward, and caught Izaya's slender wrist in his hand before the informant could throw something else at the terrified doctor. "Shut up!" He looked down at Izaya who was gritting his teeth and staring straight ahead at nothing. "You told me to bring you here, remember?"

"You stupid neanderthal!" Izaya bit, jerking his wrist out of his grip. "I think I'd remember something like that!"

"Obviously not!" Shizuo growled, a little irritated at the insult. He gave him a quick shove, and not being able to see it coming, Izaya immediately fell back on the bed. "Look! You were drugged! You still are, obviously! So just calm the fuck down and I'll tell you what happened!" Izaya turned his head away, practically grinding his teeth.

"Fine!" he spat. Shizuo raised his eyebrows. He'd never seen Izaya this angry before. It was kind of...cute. He smiled triumphantly.

"Good! But before that, would you please put some god damn clothes on? No one here wants to see your skinny ass." Izaya suddenly turned a deep shade of red that covered his entire body. It seemed he was just now realizing how naked he was, and blinked stupidly before practically diving back under the covers.

"Perverts!" he hissed.

"As if!" Shinra huffed, straightening his glasses and dusting off his coat. "Your clothes are on the couch. I've got some patients to see today, so I'll be back to check on you, later. Oh, and I expect this mess to be cleaned up before Celty gets home."

"Thank you for your help," Shizuo nodded. "I'll make sure the room's good before I leave." Izaya, still looking completely pissed off, said nothing as Shinra left, closing the door behind him. "What's the matter with you?" Shizuo scolded once they were alone He began picking up the glass that now littered the floor. "I've never seen you so out of control! It's not like you to lose your temper."

Izaya glared, and he turned his head away. "I can't see..." he muttered.

"Well, if you'd let Shinra talk instead of throwing things at him, he would have told you that it's probably a side effect of the drugs. Don't worry, I'm sure it will wear off."

"What happened last night?" he asked, his voice losing a bit of it's edge after the reassurance. Now, he just sounded tired. It dawned on Shizuo that not being able to see was probably one of Izaya's worst nightmares. It made him completely vulnerable in the less than considerate, underground world he lived in. Shizuo felt a little twinge of pity, and wondered for a moment if he should even relay the events that Izaya had clearly forgotten. It'd probably just freak him out more. But in the end, the body guard thought it best for both of them to be on the same page and know just what they were up against. After all, Izaya was pretty smart. Shizuo was sure he'd think of something, so he told him everything that happened, starting from when he found his broken cell phone in the parking lot and ending with Anja giving him the amulet. As an afterthought, he included, "Oh, and Namie-san said to tell you that she hates you and hopes you die...and that she's going on a paid vacation while you're gone." He finished cleaning up the bits and pieces of the flower arrangement, placing them in a small waste can.

Izaya had been staring blankly at him the entire time. Even after Shizuo finished speaking, he was still silent for a few moments. When he did finally speak, it was the worst reaction Shizuo could possibly have received. "Have you completely lost your mind...?" The informant asked in wonder. "You do know what you're saying, right?"

"You don't believe me? Really? After all the shit we've gone through, together?" Shizuo could hardly believe it. Completely frustrated, he ripped off the bandage on his neck and grabbed Izaya's idle hand, pushing it against the stitched and angry skin. "You almost fucking slit my throat! There was obviously something after you!"

Izaya grimaced a bit as he felt the injury and withdrew his fingers, shaking them as if they had been dirtied. "Icky... I'll bet you look like Frankenstein! Too bad I can't see it!"

"You still don't believe me?" Shizuo asked, his shoulders slumping.

"Nope!"

"ARGH! Why? Why would I lie about something like this?"

"I know you don't lie, Shizu-chan," Izaya soothed, stretching his hands over his head. "I would prefer to think that you are very confused."

"Cause I'm so stupid, right?" Shizuo growled.

"Because to believe you would have very bad implications for me," the informant corrected. Shizuo frowned at his friend.

"You can't ignore this. I don't think it's just going to go away."

"That's exactly what it's going to do," Izaya declared. "I'm dropping this job, and we shall never speak of it, again."

"I don't think so," Shizuo shook his head. "You're going to tell me why you went to that club last night, and who that freaky lady was."

"My, my. So bossy, Shizu-chan!" Izaya purred, pulling the covers up to his chin with a mischievous smirk on his face. "Am I going to get a spanking if I continue to misbehave?"

"I'm gonna burn your clothes if you don't tell me."

Izaya frowned, letting his hands fall back along his sides with a thump. "You're seriously going to hold a poor, drugged, blind man's clothes hostage?"

"Damn right, I am! Now tell me!"

"I don't think I appreciate how manipulative you're becoming, Shizu-chan... What happened to just threatening to pound my face in?"

"Tch! As if that ever worked! And I learned from the best! So go on. Spill it!"

Izaya clucked his tongue and then sighed. "Fine. I went to that club last night to try and find information on a few disappearances that happened, lately. One of my best clients had a nephew go missing, only to reappear about a week later, completely insane and missing his hands. But he couldn't tell anyone what had happened."

"W-what?"

Izaya just continued on. "Naturally, my client was a little more than upset, and asked me to look into it. I discovered that another girl, roughly the same age, had gone missing just a week earlier. She turned up with her head badly injured, almost as if she had been scalped, all the skin with her hair had been removed. Oh, and another man was missing his neck. A really tall fellow. Needless to say... unfortunately, he didn't make it."

Shizuo was starting to feel a little nauseated, and he swallowed a lump in his throat. "'Okay...So someone's taking body parts...check...What does this have to do with that club?"

"Both victims were last seen at that club before they disappeared, so it was the natural place to start." Shizuo nodded. Everything Izaya was saying made sense so far.

"And that creepy lady?"

"'Creepy lady' is the owner of said night club. Miyako is her name. I couldn't find any information on her other than that. It seems like she just appeared one day out of nowhere."

"What did she say to you?"

"Not much," Izaya sighed. "I think we successfully fooled her into thinking we were just regular customers out having a good time. It was kind of fun, wasn't it?" Izaya grinned. "And you actually had me thinking you couldn't dance!"

"Izaaaya!" Shizuo growled, grateful the informant couldn't see the slight blush coloring his cheeks at the memory. It had been kind of fun...but he wasn't going to let that sneaky little flea side track him.

"Okay, okay!" Izaya muttered. "Anyway, she actually approached me first. I couldn't have planned anything better. I introduced myself as a blogger who wrote articles on local hot spots, and told her that my boyfriend and I were having a great time at her club."

Shizuo groaned and let his head fall into his hands. Was that why the woman had been smiling at him? "What the hell, Izaya? Why did you tell her that!"

"Because! You had to go and glare at us like you were hoping we'd catch on fire! I had to cover for your total creeper-like tendencies!"

"I AM NOT A CREEPER!"

From somewhere in the other room, Shinra knocked on the wall. "Keep it down in there, you two!" They both rolled their eyes at the muffled voice scolding them.

"I am _not _a creeper!" Shizuo whispered, angrily. Izaya just smirked at him.

"Whatever. I just told her you were the jealous type and asked if she would be willing to answer a few questions for my readers. She agreed, but apparently she has the same nasty habit you do, and wanted to smoke during the interview. So we went outside."

Shizuo kept waiting for Izaya to continue, but he had fallen silent. "And?" Shizuo prompted.

"And that's it. I woke up here, blind, practically naked, to Shinra babbling at me."

"You don't remember anything else? Anything she said or did? Did she give you something to drink?"

"I don't remember..." Izaya stared vacantly, before suddenly erupting in laughter. "I do remember her telling me I had pretty eyes! I mean, of course they're like twin jewels from the skies of an Arabian night, but still, most people don't just come right out and say it!" He continued to laugh as Shizuo rolled his own eyes and shook his head. "Heh! Who knows? Maybe she was trying to date rape me!"

"Why do you sound so happy about that?" Shizuo threw his hands up in the air, completely exasperated with the informant's attitude. "You can't see it, but I'm shaking my head at your nonsense!"

"Ah, you can't deny it, Shizu-chan!" Izaya batted his eyelashes at him. "Anyone would want these beauties!"

Shizuo was about to really lay into him, when a terrible thought crossed his mind that made his heart start pounding loudly in his chest. Izaya must have come to the same realization as well, because his smile quickly faded, as his eyes opened wide. Shizuo could see goosebumps creeping up his pale arms and chest. That thing...in Izaya's apartment...had it been trying to...? Shizuo stood up with a growl and started heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" Izaya demanded.

"I'm going to go have a _talk _with Miss Miyako," Shizuo said rather darkly.

"No! You can't!" Shizuo paused at the utter panic in the informant's voice. He was gripping the blanket so tightly, his knuckles were white and he bit his lip, looking down.

"I'll be back tonight, I promise," Shizuo said, softening his tone a bit. "Shinra's here, and I'm sure Celty-san will be back soon. You don't have to be afraid."

"I am NOT afraid," Izaya narrowed his eyes, but the way his body started trembling said otherwise. Shizuo smiled sympathetically.

"Of course you're not," he affirmed. "So you'll be just fine until I get back, right?"

Izaya said nothing and looked away, again. The blonde man turned and placed his hand on the door knob.

"Shizuo..." he paused at the small voice reaching out to him from across the room. "Please don't leave me."

It was completely pitiful, and it tugged at something in Shizuo's chest. The fact that the infamous Izaya Orihara had been reduced to such a state just made him more determined to have it out with that woman. "I'm sorry...I'll be back soon." And with that, he left, but it was difficult to shut the door on those pleading and fearful eyes, which stared at him unseeing. That woman had better have answers, because at the moment, Shizuo was taking great pleasure in imagining her six feet under.

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><p><em>Yeee! Git her, papa-bear! RAR! XD<em>


	5. Chapter 5

_Halloo! Oi! I always intend to update earlier, and then I get distracted with other very important things...Like learning how to play "Double Rainbows" on my ukulele. Oh, and I've begun drafting another DRRR story, which will be very serious and somber, indeed. However, I'd really like to finish a good bit of it before posting, as I feel people will be turned off by the beginning and will not want to read the rest of it unless it is readily available...Does that even make sense? LoL! I ramble! On to the new chapter! Hooray! Big thank you to everyone who has reviewed!_

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><p>Shizuo barged through the door of the night club on a rampage. He stalked up to the bartender from the night before, slamming his palms on the counter top.<p>

"Hey there, guy! Where's your sexy friend, tonight?" The man set down a glass in front of him. Shizuo scowled at him, slapping the glass off the ledge and sending it to the floor with a shatter. The bartender's eyes widened considerably at the heated display, and he took a step back.

"I want to talk to your fucking boss, NOW!" his voice thundered so loudly, everyone in the entire room could hear it over the music. The record the DJ was spinning dragged to a halt, and everyone stopped their dancing to stare. The man held up his hands, defensively.

"Okay, okay, take it easy, big fellow!"

"Like hell I will!"

"He's not around at the moment! Got called away on some business!" Shizuo narrowed his eyes at the man, who swallowed nervously and couldn't keep his eyes from flickering about. He had no doubt that the bartender was trying to mislead him even further by saying 'he'.

"You're lying!" he seethed, grabbing a nearby chair someone had hastily vacated upon his arrival, "And you got two seconds before I smash your skull in with this to tell me where the fuck she is! I know she's here, god damn it! I can smell it!"

"Oh, can you now?" A surprisingly deep voice startled the blonde man from behind. Dropping the chair, he spun around to come face to face with the very person he was looking for. Yet, as Shizuo tilted his head back a little to stare into those large, lifeless, grey eyes, he found himself wishing for a moment he hadn't found her. The absurdly tall woman stood at her full height, sweeping her shimmering white gown behind her as she smiled down at him, benevolently. Shizuo did not care for it at all. There was something predatory hidden behind her friendly facade and the way she seemingly never blinked. He felt as if he were being sized up by a snake for swallowing. "Surely I don't smell all that bad!" She placed her long hands on her hips and laughed deep within her chest. It sounded garbled, unnatural, and it made Shizuo grimace with disgust. "Your little friend was much more charming. Why isn't he here with you, this evening?" Shizuo ground his teeth.

"Oh, gee! I don't know! Maybe spending the whole night trying to keep your eyes from getting ripped out of your head wears a guy out, ya think?" The ghoulish woman's broad smile shrunk to a thin line across her face.

"Why don't you come with me to my office? I can tell you have a lot on your mind you wish to discuss." Miyako did not wait for his reply. She turned and began walking towards the back of the club, the dancers on the floor clearing a path for them. Shizuo felt like he had little choice if he wanted answers, so he followed. On the opposite side of the exit door was another unmarked door that he could only guess led to her office. She opened it and gestured for him to enter first. Shizuo took a deep breath and walked through the door into darkness. Miyako closed the door behind them, and her long fingers took their time to reach a pull string lamp over their heads, illuminating a long set of steps. "I apologize for that," her uncharacteristically low voice rumbled behind him. Shizuo was now completely on edge. Going down into a dark basement with the creepy lady was not exactly what he had in mind, and he didn't like not knowing what to expect. Was this woman the thing that had been after them in Izaya's apartment? If so, that meant she had magical powers or something, right? What if his physical strength was no match for it? All these questions flitted through his mind, as they reached the bottom and walked the length of a long wooden hall, lit by another single lamp. She stopped at the first door on the left, but Shizuo could see a large, rectangular object at the end of the hallway, covered by a dust cloth. He looked at it curiously for a moment, before following her into a dimly lit, but newly furnished office space. She almost immediately seated herself in a taller, leather cushioned chair, and gestured to a small couch facing her. Shizuo just shook his head.

"No thanks. Now spill it. What the fuck is going on? Are you after my friend?" He decided being direct was the best route to take. No funny talk. Besides, god knew he got enough of that from Izaya.

"I'm afraid I do not know what you're talking about," she crossed one long leg over the other, and leaned against the arm rest. As she spoke, she picked the nail on her middle finger with her thumbnail, making an infuriating clicking noise, but her large, vacant eyes never left Shizuo's.

"Don't give me that bull shit! I'm not leaving until I have answers!" he sneered, taking a step toward her to indicate he meant business. For a while, Miyako said nothing, she only continued to stare into his eyes, unblinking. She seemed a bit peeved when he tried to return the glare, before her eyebrows shot up in realization.

"What a charming necklace you have!" she commented, narrowing her eyes while smiling in anything but a sweet way. Shizuo unconsciously gripped the stone around his neck at her mentioning. It was completely hidden beneath his uniform! How could she have seen it? "I'd love to know who gave it to you!"

"That's none of your damn business!" Shizuo snapped. He had a feeling the necklace was some sort of weakness for her, and he would be damned before he gave up its source.

"Ah," she sighed. "Such a pity." Her grey eyes momentarily flickered towards his feet, and he instinctively moved them.

"Such a pity," Shizuo echoed, sardonically. "Now, tell me what happened last night!"

"You're really a persistent, little brute, aren't you?" The blonde man blinked at being referred to as "little". It had been ages since he'd heard that word applied to himself in a sentence. It almost made him want to laugh. Almost... "Look, your boyfriend-"

"He's NOT my boyfriend!"

"...Whatever. Your _friend _wanted an interview, and I agreed, but the moment we stepped outside, he got a phone call and ran off! It was kind of rude, honestly, but I simply assumed it was important."

"I couldn't have been more than fifteen seconds behind you, and when I opened the door, there was no one there," Shizuo growled, puzzled as to why the woman kept staring at his feet every few seconds.

"I decided to run to the convenience station for more smokes. You probably just missed my car."

"My friend's phone was smashed on the ground..."

"Hmm. He must have dropped it in his haste. I apologize for not noticing. Why are you asking me all these questions? Did something...happen?"

"You know damn well what happened! When I went to his apartment the next morning, something was attacking him!"

"From the looks of your neck, it seems something attacked YOU," she observed. "Which would have been very odd, indeed."

"So you do know something!" Shizuo accused.

"Not at all! It's just that I have heard you are quite strong! And I can't imagine anyone wanting to pick a fight with you," she sounded almost bored, and certainly not sincere. Her eyes drifted down to his feet again. What? Were his shoes ugly or something?

"Yeah, well, maybe if you drugged me like you did my friend, it would have evened out the fight a bit."

"Are you accusing me of drugging your _friend_ and trying to do him bodily harm?" she blinked at him as if thoroughly confused. "And you say you found him in his apartment? Why would I take him back there? Your story doesn't add up."

"I don't know! Izaya's pretty smart! He probably tried to get away and you followed him there!" The scowl she threw him confirmed that he was at least partly right. Something had not gone according to plan, that much he could tell.

"So, there's really no way I can convince you that I had absolutely nothing to do with it?" her eyes became dangerous slits, scrutinizing him before darting back down to his feet.

"Hardly," Shizuo growled, growing angrier and less afraid by the minute.

"You know, you have very lovely ankles."

"Excuse me?" Shizuo's eyebrows shot up, incredulously.

"Your ankles...they're so narrow, so elegant, but strong."

Okay, Shizuo was officially pissed off. He immediately wrenched a leg free from the coffee table to their side and held it like a club. "I don't believe in hitting women," he began calmly, taking a menacing step toward a very surprised looking Miyako, "But I'm pretty fucking sure you ain't no lady! So I won't feel too bad about this!" Without further warning, Shizuo swung the table leg at her head. Miyako and the room around them vanished quite suddenly, and Shizuo found himself at the edge of a dock, swinging at nothing but cool, night air. "Whoa, no!" he tried to catch his balance from the inertia of the swing, but it was too late. "Oh, f-" With a large splash, he plummeted into the cold, dark water. He broke the surface, coughing and sputtering. Even with his strength, he could feel the weight of his clothes pulling him down as he began to swim towards the ladder on the pier. After a few strokes, he realized that it wasn't the clothes holding him back. Something gripped tightly around his left ankle, and as soon as he became aware of it's presence, it gave a savage jerk, pulling him under water. Shizuo grit his teeth and wrapped his fingers around an unusually cold, but definitely human-like wrist. If there was a wrist, there was an arm, and if there was an arm, there was a shoulder. Shizuo's mind began to reel with the lack of oxygen. If there was a shoulder, that should put the face right about...there! Shizuo gave a swift kick and felt his foot collide with something solid. There was a whirl of bubbles released around him, and the hand let go. He immediately shot to the surface again, not waiting to catch his breath before he lunged for the ladder and hauled himself out of the water. When he could finally breathe normally, he looked back down at the dark and murky water. Bubbles continued to rise to the surface in the direction of the dock, and Shizuo hastily got himself to solid ground. "What the hell...?" he asked himself out loud. Some _thing_ had just tried to drown him in Tokyo Bay! How did he even get out here?

Shizuo immediately began walking back toward the club, ignoring the stares he received for his drenched appearance. All he could think was that at some point, everything must have faded into a delusion. Was he ever even at the club? It was difficult to tell, but one thing was for sure. This Miyako person was not human, and she had some pretty impressive powers of illusion. He took his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and sighed. They were ruined, along with his cell phone. It had grown quite late by the time he reached the address of the club again, and he immediately knew something was wrong. There were no lights or sound emanating from the building. In fact, it looked completely abandoned, many of it's windows boarded shut. Three high school children were standing on the side walk in the front, satisfying their curiosity about the eerie building. One of them, a girl with cropped brown hair and round eye glasses noticed Shizuo immediately, and nudged a little closer to a boy with black hair and blue eyes. He was far too distracted by another blonde boy to notice Shizuo approach.

"Creepy, isn't it?" The blonde boy grinned over his shoulder at his companions. "You know, I swear I heard music coming from here just the other night."

"But that's impossible...isn't it?" the blue eyed boy piped up. "I mean, you said this place has been abandoned for years."

"It has," the girl nodded in agreement.

"Hey! What do you kids know about this place?" Shizuo asked, taking out a newly purchased pack of cigarettes and lighting one. The two boys visibly startled, but the girl remained still. The blonde one had immediately raised his fists defensively, but shrugged once he realized Shizuo was not a threat.

"Nothing much. It's been an eyesore since I moved here. They were going to tear it down, but word is on the street that some woman from the north country bought it up, but no one knows exactly why."

"I heard it's haunted!" the blue eyed boy quickly interjected.

"Wait, so you guys have never heard of a night club or anything being here?" Shizuo almost groaned, more confused than ever.

"Nope!" the blonde shrugged again. "And I'd know about that! For sure!"

"Wait...," the girl looked down, holding a hand to her chin, "Are you talking about that night club that people get exclusively invited to from online?"

"Oh, no way! Is it really here? Man, that would be genius! Ah, I can't wait until I'm twenty!" The blonde kid was practically jumping with glee.

"What's this nonsense about?" Shizuo asked.

The blonde boy stopped his twirling to answer. "It's a rumor! The traveling night club! It's super exclusive! Exclusive enough that they move around every now and then to different buildings in the city! So you can only find it if you get a hold of one of their invitations!"

"And you're not supposed to take anyone with you, otherwise, you'll be cursed," the girl finished for him, quietly. Shizuo slapped his forehead.

'...God damn flea...why didn't he tell me any of this before he dragged me there? If I'd known, I wouldn't have gone, and this whole mess could have been avoided! Oh, wait...what am I thinking?...Izaya would have just found some other idiot to go with him. Guess he was pretty lucky he picked me. Actually, why did he pick me?'

The three high schoolers gave Shizuo an odd look, as he became completely lost in thought.

'He obviously wasn't too concerned about getting spirited away. And he knew I had no idea how to act in a place like that, and that I would stick out like a sore thumb...And he did call me his boyfriend...' Shizuo's face began to turn a deep shade of red, and he quickly shook any more thoughts along those lines from his mind.

"Hey, um...are you okay, sir?" The blue eyed boy sounded genuinely concerned.

"You all stay the hell out of trouble!" he growled, making them jump. No better way to get rid of troublesome thoughts than to scold some damn kids. "Don't go getting mixed up with shady clubs like this!"

"Hey, what's the big deal?" the blonde boy folded his arms and quirked an eyebrow.

"I'm just telling you, it's bad news." Shizuo didn't even want to think about one of these kids showing up on the news with body parts missing, and he left in the wake of three troubled glances. "Now get your asses home! It's too late for little kids to be out on a school night!"

"Hey, up yours, Pops!" the blonde one raged, with curled fists. Before Shizuo could turn around, the boy was quickly rescued by his two friends.

"Masaomi, don't be rude!" and with that, the dark haired boy shoved his friend along, the girl with glasses following closely behind. Shizuo shook his head, and walked back to Shinra's place. When he got there, Shinra immediately fetched him a towel and Shizuo shook his head at the quizzical look the doctor was giving him.

"You don't even want to know," he told him, wrapping the towel around his neck. He was relieved to find Izaya already sleeping peacefully in the spare bedroom. Thankfully, it looked as if Shinra had loaned him a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt to sleep in, so the earlier fiasco wouldn't be repeated. Izaya looked so innocent as he slept, the second pillow hugged tightly to his chest. It was such a contrast to the hurricane that was Izaya Orihara when awake, it made Shizuo chuckle. What a flea.

"He's quiet when he's sleeping, at least," Shinra whispered with a sigh, walking up to stand next to him. Shizuo imagined that Izaya had probably worn the poor doctor out in his absence.

"How long have you known Izaya?" Shizuo asked out of the blue. He didn't know why, but he was curious.

"Oh, Izaya and I went to the same middle school. Even back then, he was quite a handful," Shinra chuckled, quietly. "Always in trouble."

"Yeah?" Shizuo knew how that was. Although he was sure it was for different reasons, he spent many an afternoon in detention. "Bet he didn't have a lot of friends, huh?"

"I don't think Izaya had any, honestly," Shinra shrugged. "I suppose you could call me the closest thing he had to one. Ha! I used to kind of feel bad for him, until I got to know him better."

"What do you mean?"

"I realized that Izaya really prefers it that way. He always maintains complete control, and that requires keeping people at a distance." Shizuo frowned. It seemed like a lonely existence, indeed. "That's why it must be extra hard on him, not being able to see and all."

"His sight didn't come back, yet?"

"Not yet. And I'm starting to get a little worried. If it hasn't returned by tomorrow morning, we'll run some more tests." Shizuo followed the doctor back into the living room, closing the door behind him. "In any case, best not to worry unless there's good reason, eh?" Shizuo smiled a little grimly, and Shinra went into the kitchen.

"Hey, Shinra," he began.

"Hm? What is it?" Shinra called from the kitchen. Shizuo could hear the sound of a teapot being lifted off the stove.

"I know we've imposed on your kindness enough, but would you mind if I crashed on your couch, tonight?"

"Not at all!" Shinra hummed as he spooned sugar into his mug of tea and walked back into the living room. "And please! Izaya is fully compensating me for my medical services, so there is no need to feel like you're imposing."

"...Oh, yeah..."

"I'll just be doing some work on the computer, if you don't mind. Actually, I have to step out a couple of hours from now, so it's good that you'll be here in case Izaya wakes up. He seems to be a little jumpy about being left alone. I'm sure knowing his sweet honey is here will make him feel so much better!"

"What the- His sweet WHAT?" Shizuo roared. Before he could step forward to take a swing at the clueless doctor, Shinra had opened a hall closet and retrieved a blanket and a pillow, thrusting them in Shizuo's face.

"I'll get you a shirt and some dry shorts," he smiled, quite oblivious to the beating he had just avoided.

Not more than twenty minutes later, Shizuo was dry and warm under the blanket on the couch, completely exhausted. There was the low rumble of thunder in the distance, as rain began to gently fall outside. Shizuo quickly fell asleep to the rhythmic pattering. It seemed like mere seconds, but it must have been a few hours when Shizuo was violently awakened by a large crashing sound, and a flash of lightning. He fell off of the couch with a yelp, hitting his head on the coffee table. Rubbing his injured head, he cautiously got to his feet. Had that been thunder? His tired mind quickly concluded it was, and he was about to settle back into the warm couch when an ear piercing shriek startled him so badly, he nearly tripped over his own feet. Unaware that the informant was even capable of making such a blood curdling scream, he quickly raced to the bedroom door.

Locked. God dammit! Why wasn't he surprised?

He cursed his own stupidity for not staying in the same room. With Shinra already gone, and a spare key nowhere to be found, Shizuo lifted his foot without hesitation, and with a sound kick, busted the door open. The flickering lightning illuminated the room enough for Shizuo to see a body flying towards him. In the split second before he brought his fist to knock it down, he recognized Izaya crashing into him, clinging for dear life. He was shaking so badly, it was enough to make Shizuo take a step back to maintain balance.

"You okay?" he asked, gripping the almost senseless man by the soldiers. Much to his dismay, instead of receiving an answer Izaya's legs gave out, and Shizuo had to keep him from dropping to the floor. "Oi! Izaya! Come on! What's wrong?"

A pale, trembling hand wrapped around his neck and pulled his ear toward the informant's lips. "She can see us right now..." he barely managed to whisper. Shizuo's eyes grew wide and roved over the dark contents of the room.

"How do you know?" Shizuo tried his best to whisper back.

"She has my sight..." the blonde man barely caught the words before Izaya slumped lifelessly to the ground. Shizuo stood up and flicked the light switch on, but the power was out. Of course... With an almost heavy sigh, he stepped over his friend and rummaged through the chest of drawers until he found a flashlight. He then proceeded to check over and under every object within the room, even going so far as to open every drawer and look under every pillow. After the room had been searched to his satisfaction, he was forced to consider the fact that Izaya could have just been having night terrors, and there had never been a threat to begin with. As he turned to make sure the window was locked, the light from his flashlight swept over the glass pane, and Shizuo froze. Two large hand prints reflected in the light.

A few hours later, Shinra returned with Celty, just as the sun was beginning to rise. "Ah," the bespectacled man stretched his arms over his head as the headless rider walked in front of him. "What a perfect date! I'm glad you finished your work early! It's been way too long since we went out, together!" The headless rider nodded, and typed something on her handheld screen before holding it out to him. Shinra didn't even look at it, as he did a little twirl. "Of course we should do it again, soon! And once you are Ms. Kishitani, I will take you EVERYWHERE with me!" Celty typed something else. "Ah, what do you mean you're not taking my surname?" Shinra whined. "I can't help it if my father's such a- _oof_!" Shinra collided with Celty, as she came to a sudden halt. Adjusting his glasses, he peered around to see what she was looking at.

The two men were sound asleep on the couch, with Izaya's back to the cushions and his face buried in Shizuo's chest. The blonde man had wrapped his arms protectively around him, hugging him tightly, as his chin rested on top his black hair. Shinra looked back up at Celty, and grinned. She wasn't capable of facial expressions, but if she were not headless, Shinra was sure her jaw would be hitting the floor. He patted her on the shoulder. "Well, would you look at that!" he smiled. "Who would have ever thought it possible? I mean, I was just joking before, but it looks like we weren't the only ones enjoying ourselves!" Celty's shoulders shook, as she furiously typed something. Shinra blinked at the screen and frowned. "No, we're not buying a new couch!" She typed something else. "Celty, what ever are you talking about?" Shinra rolled his eyes and walked in the direction of the spare bedroom toward the kitchen. "I'm sure the couch's integrity is quite intact. Are you im-WHAA! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DOOR!"

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><p><em>WooOOOoooo. It's not Halloween anymore, unfortunately, but what-evs! I'll probably wrap it up in the next chapter. :P<em>


	6. Chapter 6

_UGH! This story keeps making a liar out of me! :( I really thought this would be the last chapter, but oh well. Que draaaama~! XD I felt like this chapter was super bitchy, but oh well. I felt like we needed some emotional turmoil to go along with all the freaky stuff. Hope you guys like! Sorry it took me so long to update! And sorry for all the spelling/grammar errors! ^^ This was kind of rushed._

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><p>Shizuo and Izaya both nearly jumped out of their skins at the sound of a wooden spoon banging against a steel pot. Shizuo's foot twisted in the blanket, as he tried to sprint, sending him face planting to the floor with a loud thud. Izaya was doing his best to climb over him and dart. Once free of the struggling blonde, he immediately crashed into the coffee table and fell right back on top of him. Each trying to escape the horrible clamor in their foggy state, and Izaya still not being able to see, they were a ridiculous sight. Shinra threw back his head and laughed, almost dropping the offending pot and spoon. "That's what you get for breaking my door!" Celty stood next to him without her helmet, wearing a plain white apron, her shoulders silently shaking in mirth. Shizuo growled, finally gaining control of his scrambled senses and grabbing a still struggling and flailing Izaya by the shirt collar. He lifted the informant back onto the couch and turned to face their tormentors.<p>

"Shinra! What the hell?" he barked . This only made the odd couple laugh harder, especially when Shizuo saw that Celty was not wearing her helmet and blanched. "W-what?" he stuttered, taking a step back. "Y-you...you really don't have a...a..."

As Shizuo was gaping like a fish out of water, Izaya poked his indignant head over the back of the couch, thoroughly irritated. "Yes, yes, she has no head," he muttered, rubbing his own throbbing temples. "But Shinra's the real monster, here!" Celty typed on her handheld and thrust it in front of his face. He sighed, rolling his eyes. "I can't see, Celty-san. Shinra will just have to read all of your insults to me." Almost immediately, she turned around and thrust the screen at Shinra. He blinked at it for a moment.

"'You know I hate that word.. I won't have you using it on Shinra..' WAAH! Celty, my darling!" He threw his arms around her very resisting body, "You're defending me! That's soooo romantic!"

Shizuo was still completely flabbergasted, as Shinra continued to hang all over the headless rider. Izaya grit his teeth at the display he could only imagine in his mind, but his lips spread in an evil grin. "Ah, young monster love! It is so creepy and unnatural, it warms the heart," his voice was dripping with sarcasm. Celty immediately shoved Shinra off of her, and flung her arm toward the informant. Much to Shizuo's horror, a black, murky shadow shot from her fingertips and wrapped around Izaya's thin neck like a rope. The informant continued to smirk, nonchalantly, as Celty gave it a firm tug, but Shizuo quickly came out of his daze and was immediately up in arms.

"Hey!" he quickly jumped over the couch, taking a swipe at the threatening, black substance. A little deterred when his hand mysteriously went straight through the shadow, he faced Celty in a rage. "You got about three seconds to get that THING off Izaya's neck, AND I'VE ALREADY STARTED COUNTING!" He thundered so loudly, that Celty quickly retracted the shadow and took a step back, fearfully clutching her hands against her chest. Izaya began laughing gleefully at all the excitement, as Shinra quickly stepped in front of Celty, holding his arms out.

"No one talks to my Celty like that!" he yelled back. Shizuo stood up straight bearing his teeth in a hostile grin.

"Well, tell her to keep her weird...shadow...thingies off other people!"

Shinra took a step forward with his fists clenched. "They are not 'weird', they're marvelous!"

"Whatever! Just don't touch the flea!"

"Izaya deserves any abuse he gets! He's a terrible person for baiting my darling Celty so!"

"I don't really care what you think! You need to keep your girlfriend in check!"

"Yeah, Shizu-chan!" Izaya gleefully interjected, fist pumping the air. "Get 'em!"

"And you need to tell your boyfriend to keep his mouth shut!" Shinra exclaimed, pointing at the informant who was now bouncing on the couch cushions, excitedly.

"He's NOT my damn boyfriend!"

"Oh, sure, because it's perfectly normal to cuddle on the couch all night with your buddy! Get serious!"

"There was a reason for that!"

"YES!" Izaya piped up excitedly again. "Fight! FIGHT!"

Shizuo spun around and pointed a finger in his face. "You shut your god damn mouth! You've caused enough trouble! And we're having a serious talk, later!" Izaya immediately crossed his arms in a sulking fashion, and turned around to sit on the couch, grumbling.

"Ah, a lover's spat? Celtys and my love is far too great for such silly altercations!"

"You're about to exit stage left, through the window, seriously!" Shizuo growled. Finally, Celty stepped between them, waiving her hands defensively. She typed something on the screen and held it out to Shizuo.

"I didn't mean to upset you by threatening your friend. I think he is a jerk, but I wouldn't have hurt him. Please don't hurt Shinra."

Shizuo read the screen, silently. He suddenly felt extremely guilty and embarrassed, as he stood up straight. He was glad Izaya wasn't able to see his face turn a light shade of pink. "Er, yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I have a bad temper...kind of."

"Then let's put all of this behind us and eat breakfast."

"Sounds great!" Shizuo smiled in what he hoped was a friendly way. "I'm starved!"

Celty typed something and held it out to a still fuming Shinra. He adjusted his glasses as he read it and smiled. "Well, if my Celty darling says so, then everything's okay. Alright! Let's get back to the kitchen! I want to taste your delicious cooking!"

"Oh, you're a good cook?" Shizuo's face lit up with surprise. Celty just shook her head, dismissively as she began typing again.

"Shinra's teaching me. I'm still not very good at it."

"Nonsense, my dear! You'll be the next Iron Chef in no time!"

"Oh, my..." Izaya rose from the couch, trying to hide how flustered he was by this turn of events. "Are we all best buddies, now? How sweet! Shall we all gather around the kotatsu and share out deepest feelings?"

Shizuo walked back to the couch and grabbed the smug brunette by one of his shoulders, steering him toward the kitchen table. "Shut up, flea, and sit your ass down," he commanded, pushing him into a chair. "You have zero manners!"

"Excuse me, but I wasn't the one threatening physical violence five minutes ago...And I have excellent manners! Wh-"

"Yeah, yeah, 'when you care to', I know!" Shizuo sighed, taking a seat across from him. He wasted no time in delving right into the heart of the matter. "Why didn't you tell me about the freaky, moving club nonsense? Oh and that part about a curse? Think you could have mentioned that?" He angrily demanded

Izaya grinned, slyly. "Oh Shizu-chan, I'm deeply impressed with your information gathering skills! Tell me, where did you hear something like that?"

"These three high school kids."

"Yes, and indelible source to be sure."

"Don't start with my, I-zay-a!" Shizuo ground his teeth. "You've already admitted people were disappearing from this place with missing body parts! You should have told me!"

"Should of, would of, and I could of," Izaya sing-songed, looking away. "Who knows, Shizu-chan? Maybe I just wanted to go on a date with you."

The coyness in Izaya's voice threw Shizuo off for a moment, before he slammed his fist on the table. "Knock it off," he said, flatly. "There's some psychotic, demon freak who wants to literally rip your pretty little eyeballs out of your head, and you can't quit your stupid mind games for two seconds?"

"Shizu-chan thinks my eyes are pretty? I can surely die a contented man, now."

"Don't start doing this!" Shizuo warned, lowering his voice so that Celty and Shinra couldn't hear. "Don't start shutting me out with your stupid sarcasm. We need to figure out a plan." Izaya blinked a bit at his bluntness, before slumping slightly in his chair.

"There's not much I can do. I can't see, so I can't do research or gather information. I can only sit around and wait for the next time she comes." His voice was tinged with an anxiety Shizuo wasn't used to hearing from the seemingly untouchable informant.

"Well, there's plenty I can do," he assured him. "And for starters, I need some explanations. Why couldn't that thing touch me at your apartment?"

"I'm not too sure..." Izaya stared blankly at nothing when he spoke. It was kind of creepy in it's own way, but Shizuo didn't want to make Izaya self conscious by asking him to just shut his eyes. "But I could see what she saw, and I just felt...that...if you looked at her, she's be able to hurt you. I think...I can't remember everything, but I think there's something weird about her eyes."

"You can say that, again," Shizuo muttered, and he shuddered remembering the lifeless, staring orbs he had been forced to look into the night before.

"I think she might be able to control people by some type of hypnotism."

"You think she did that to you?"

"It's possible," Izaya shrugged. "I really don't remember anything from the time at the club to you finding me the next morning."

"Well, I spoke to Miyako last night, and although she stared at me a lot, I don't think I got hypnotized."

"Yeah, you probably wouldn't be here, if you did," Izaya mused. "But all the same, that's interesting..."

"You think it's this necklace Anja gave me?" Shizuo asked, gripping the stone around his neck. Izaya gave a small growl, as he folded his arms and looked the other way.

"Who knows? Maybe that old hag is the one behind all of this!"

"Ah, you really shouldn't still blame her for getting turned into a fox," Shizuo teased. "It was your own nosiness that got you in trouble, there!"

"Whatever! So, okay, you've got some 'magic necklace'. Hooray! How is this supposed to help us?"

"I dunno..." Shizuo pursed his lips in thought. "She said something about being able to reach the other side."

"Oh, my. How helpful!" Izaya bit, becoming more vexed by the moment.

"She also said that I have something called 'second sight'."

Izaya's eyebrows shot high into the air. "Second sight? Like, you're psychic?" He burst out laughing and put his hands behind his head.

"Hey, well, maybe it means I can actually beat this thing, you know?" Shizuo defended, angrily.

"I think it just means you're crazy for believing her!"

"Oh, come on! You've been turned into a fox, for fuck's sake! You of all people shouldn't be a skeptic!" Izaya sighed.

"Good point. Okay, fine," he stretched his hands high over his head and leaned forward on the table. "Let's figure out what we're going to do."

"Okay! Hold on one second." Shizuo got up and ran to Shinra and Celty to ask for a pen and note pad. Leaving Celty to tend the food, Shinra retrieved the requested items from his computer desk in the den and quickly returned to rescue their breakfast while Shizuo sat back down. "Alright, let's write down everything you and I both know about what's happened, and we'll go from there."

A genuine smile ghosted across Izaya's face at his friend's enthusiasm. "Lead the way, Sherlock!" he chuckled, leaning forward to rest on his elbows.

"Alright, so what I learned from talking to Miyako last night. Her office was in a creepy basement, and she denied knowing anything about what happened to you, but I could tell she was agitated about something. And she kept staring at me, so-"

"So you can't be hypnotized by her," Izaya concluded again for him. "But I doubt it's the necklace. After all, you didn't have that the first time you met her," a devilish grin spread across his face. "Maybe she can only hypnotize humans."

"I doubt it, seeing as she hypnotized YOU," Shizuo retorted, undeterred in writing down his facts and findings. Izaya clapped his hands gleefully at the come back and resumed his thinking stance. "So then she kept staring at my feet, and said something weird about my ankles..." he trailed off as he kept writing. Izaya blinked.

"Excuse me?" he asked. "Could you repeat that?"

"It's not that important," Shizuo assured him. "The next thing that hap-"

"Why the fuck was she talking about your ankles?"

"I don't know! Can we move on?" Shizuo groaned. "I wouldn't have mentioned it, except that I think we should write down everything."

"No! You're lying! You do know!" Izaya accused, standing up and pointing a finger in what he thought was the direction of Shizuo's face. "So, tell me!"

With a sigh, Shizuo reached out and directed the finger correctly so that Izaya didn't look totally ridiculous. "I don't know. She said they were...nice?"

Izaya burst out laughing so hard, he almost fell out of his chair. Shizuo rolled his eyes at his theatrics and waited for him to drag himself back to the table. "So, my Shizu-chan," he giggled. "How does it feel to know that out of all your physical features, your ankles are your strongest selling point?" he snorted, hiding his face in his arms as a new wave of laughter overtook him. Shizuo just sighed again.

"Well, excuse me! Maybe if I looked like a chick, she would have wanted something from my face!" Izaya stopped his chortling.

"I do not look like a chick," he said rather flatly. Shizuo grinned.

"No, I guess just your eyes."

"At least I don't have girly ankles."

"Well, maybe she can only take one body part per person, otherwise I'm sure she would have just taken all of YOU!" Shizuo was trying to be sarcastic, but they both gave pause to that thought.

"Shizu-chan," Izaya gasped. "I think you're right! Hell might have just froze over!" Shizuo ignored the comment.

"Yeah...And she does look awfully weird...like, almost misshapen. You think she just finds something she likes on a person and takes it for herself?"

"I'd say that's exactly it...Ugh, how creepy!" he gave a little shiver. "But, somehow I don't think the same thing that attacked me is Miyako."

"Maybe she controls a demon or something."

"It's possible," Izaya mused. "Or maybe she's trying to assist it."

"Like the club is a cover up for Miyako to find victims for this thing?"

"That is what I'm thinking. It would also explain why the club has to move around so much, so as to avoid suspicion."

"Yeah, I think it moved again last night, actually." Shizuo quickly told Izaya how he'd gone to take a swing at the ghoulish woman and wound up in the harbor. Izaya's eyes widened a little fearfully at this. "But don't worry! Whatever that thing was in the water, I kicked it in the face so hard, I'm sure at least IT won't be back!" Izaya smiled a bit strangely.

"...You are really something, Shizuo..."

Shizuo cleared his throat and blushed a bit, once again glad that Izaya couldn't see the effect his words had on him. "Well, in any case, I went back to the building and no one's there. It's abandoned."

"She has two victims in her sights, now," Izaya reasoned aloud. "I guess there's no need to put up the pretense of a club if we're still on the run."

They were both silent again, before Shizuo commented on the elephant in the room. "So, I think you know what we need to do."

Izaya grimaced. "I can only guess that you are hinting we should lure whatever thing this is out and face it head on."

"Exactly."

The informant let his head flop on the table. "I don't know, Shizu-chan... I don't think I can take much more of this."

"It'll be okay. We're a team, now, and we have a plan. Don't worry, I won't let her get you."

"What am I? A damsel in distress?" Izaya's lip curled, angrily.

"No, you're my foxy, and no one messes with my foxy."

Izaya blinked and smiled up at him at the mention of the old pet name. Just then, Shinra came twirling up to them with his arms full of plates, napkins, and cups. "Alright! Hope you two are hungry, because my Celty has prepared a feast!" he cried, almost dropping a handful of dishes in the process. Shizuo quickly rose from his seat.

"Here, let me help you with that," he said, taking the stack of cups from one of his arms. Luckily, It appeared that the couple hadn't heard any of their conversation. There was really no need to involve other people, after all.

"Ah, thank you!" Shinra smiled brightly, as he laid down the rest of the place settings, their previous animosity completely forgotten. Izaya quickly regained his aloof smirk as Shizuo and Shinra set the table. Various dishes began floating over from the kitchen, via Celty's shadow capabilities, and settled in the center of the table. Celty joined them, after removing her apron, and they all began sampling from the many dishes laid before them. The very first thing Shizuo noticed was that the food was horribly over-seasoned, especially in the sodium department. He coughed, tears quickly forming in his eyes, and just as Izaya swallowed his first mouthful and started choking out a complaint, Shizuo grabbed a baby tomato with his chopsticks and shoved it in his mouth.

"This really hits the spot, we can't thank you enough," Shizuo complimented, willing his hand to fetch another noodle from his bowl. "Isn't that right, Izaya?"

Izaya was busy grimacing, his eyes scrunched tightly shut with tears leaking out of his eyes. When he finally did swallow, he replied, "It leaves ones speechless."

"Yes, indeed, my Celty has come a long way, and it's absolutely delectable, my dear!"

Celty shrugged her shoulders, shyly. She didn't eat, as she had no mouth, but she watched intently, as the three men, well, two as Izaya proclaimed he was stuffed after one bite, continued to consume the food on the table. At one point, when Shizuo choked, with tears leaking from his eyes, she typed something into her screen.

"You don't have to force yourself."

"Oh, no!" Shizuo coughed. "It's really good!" He ground his heel into Izaya's toes, as the informant laughed. Once breakfast mercifully ended, Shizuo waited patiently on the couch while Shinra ran additional tests on Izaya's vision, as he had promised. Celty settled next to him, flipping on a reality show and leaning against the arm with her elbow propping her helmet up. For a while, the blonde man said nothing, clasping his hands awkwardly. "Hey, I know the flea's paying for it, but thanks for letting us stay in your house."

She waved him away, and kept watching her show. After a moment, she typed something on her screen and put it up to Shizuo's face. "You really care for Izaya, don't you?"

Shizuo looked away, and coughed into his sleeve before answering. "Well, you know, he's so helpless right now," he laughed. Celty shook her head and typed something else.

"That's not it. Izaya's not the type to accept support from other people, but you...You're different, somehow."

"What do you mean?" Shizuo asked, a little curious as to where the headless rider was going. He waited for her to type her complete message.

"For so long, it seemed like Izaya was a complete alien. He never spoke to anyone with sincerity and only seemed to care for himself. But with you, he's like a completely different person. I've been watching. He seems to actually consider what you say, and that makes me happy!"

"H-happy?" Shizuo read the word in surprise before she quickly typed something else.

"Yes! For so long, I was afraid of Izaya. But now I see that even he is human, just like everyone else."

Shizuo said nothing, and quickly found his sunglasses to hide behind. An hour later, Shinra came out of his makeshift examination room with a perplexed look on his face. "Did you find anything?" Shizuo asked. Shinra shook his head, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

"No. In fact, as far as I can tell, there's absolutely nothing wrong with his eyes, and no trace of drugs in his system. It's very strange..." Shizuo just nodded. He hadn't allowed his hopes to get up too high. Part of him knew what had transpired, and he doubted the underground doctor would believe it. Izaya came tripping out after him, feeling his way along the wall, looking not very happy at all. Shizuo knew he must be dreading the coming confrontation with the thing that put him in this state, and quickly went to his side, to let him catch his sleeve and lead him.

"Well, we'll get going now," he told the odd couple. "Thank you again for letting us stay with you, and sorry about your door."

"Not to worry, I'll just add it to your bill." Shinra waived.

"Lovely," Izaya grumbled.

While they were on the elevator, Shizuo removed his sunglasses and placed them on Izaya's face. The informant startled at the contact and arched his eyebrows high in the air.

"I don't think I need glasses if I can't see," he commented, dryly. Shizuo sighed, trying to think of how to put it nicely.

"Well, you know, you might stare into the sun and not realize it or something..." he finally mumbled, giving up on telling him the real reason for his actions. Izaya tilted his head to the side, and then chuckled.

"Shizuo, does my blind person stare unnerve you that badly?" he chuckled.

"No, but you don't want to attract attention, do you?"

Izaya smiled, adjusting the shades. "You're a terrible liar."

"Well I'm not you, am I?"

"Shizu-chan doesn't approve of my career choice?" Izaya pouted, catching hold of his sleeve once he heard the doors open.

"Not really, no. And I don't like how you entertain yourself after hours, either. Why can't you just be normal like everyone else?"

"Shizu-chan!" Izaya gasped. "That's so boring! And I beg to differ. No one is 'normal'. Everyone has secret hopes and fears and things about their past they keep hidden from the rest of the world. What harm is there in rooting them out and exposing them to the light? I am a champion of justice, practically!" He swung out his arms, dramatically, as they walked.

"Shut up, flea!" Shizuo popped him in the back of the head. "There's nothing just about trolling people and using their trust to manipulate them! Even Celty said she was afraid of you, and she doesn't even have a freakin' head! Why do you want everyone to hate and fear you so much?"

Izaya blinked for a moment, and shoved his free hand in his pants pocket, his smile becoming a bit forlorn. "That is the fate of us gods, I'm afraid," he sighed. "Humans are so easily deceived and broken, it's their own fault, really."

"So let me get this straight," Shizuo took out a cigarette and lit it, blowing out a long stream of smoke. Some of the smoke wafted in Izaya's face, and the informant wrinkled up his nose and gave a little sneeze. "You're smart, and you're bored."

"A good deal of the time, yes."

"That's dumb. You could try thinking up ways to help people rather than helping them jump off of buildings and bridges," Shizuo commented. "After all, it's harder to make someone better than to drag them down."

"...I suppose. But Shizu-chan, I really just don't care that much!" Izaya chuckled. "I just want to play!"

"You play twisted games, flea. And you're going to wind up totally alone if you keep doing that."

"Ah, implying that I'm not already quite alone in the human companionship department?" Izaya smiled. Shizuo ground his teeth. Something about that comment stung a bit, but the blonde body guard didn't understand why.

"Well, I'm walking next to you right now, aren't I?"

"Shizu-chan, we've been over this before. You're not a human. You're a neanderthal."

"But I'm boring just like all your other humans, right?" Shizuo growled, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and grinding it out with his shoe.

"I don't think you're boring at all, Shizu-chan. You very rarely fail to amuse me."

Shizuo had to use all of his recently acquired self restraint to stop from punching what would be a very unsuspecting informant in the face. He settled for not guiding Izaya around a lamp post and smiling smugly, as Izaya rubbed his injured nose the rest of the way to his apartment. It was always like this. Just when he thought there was something beyond the cold and sarcastic exterior, Shizuo would run into another brick wall with the informant. But even Izaya couldn't deny that he intentionally sought him out several times a week, and he really did take a bullet for him when he had absolutely nothing to gain. It was these thoughts that always led Shizuo back to the conclusion that Izaya, deep down, really was a good person, just as Anja had said. There was just several layers of asshole and insanity one had to see through.

They reached Shizuo's apartment, which really wasn't too far from Shinra's, and kicked off their shoes before settling down on the couch. Both of them sat, stiffly, with their hands clasped in front of them, listening to the sounds of the city through Shizuo's ever open, back window. A little shiver traveled up Izaya's spine, and he gave his shoulders a shake.

"Cold?" Shizuo asked.

"Little."

"Think you left one of your jackets here a month ago, or so," he muttered, rising to his feet and heading toward the coat closet next to his front door. He returned to the couch holding Izaya's familiar, fur trimmed jacket. Izaya immediately recognized it, and he hugged it tightly, burying his face in the fabric.

"Ahh, how long have you been hiding this, Shizu-chan?" Izaya smirked, his voice muffled through the material against his face. "You sly dog, you. I'll bet you slept with this EVERY night!"

Shizuo rolled his eyes and gave his shoulder a shove, which almost sent the informant tumbling to the floor. "Get over yourself, flea!" he growled, but there was a smile on his face. "You probably just forgot it one of the times you were pilfering my socks and underwear. Who's the damn pervert here?"

"Touche'!" Izaya's smile became very somber as he slipped his arms into the sleeves. "Ne, Shizu-chan..."

"Hn?"

Izaya clasped his hands in front of him again, and stared at the floor. "You know...if I don't make it out of this alive..." he suddenly laughed, leaning into the back of the couch with his hands behind his head. "Ah, listen to me! So dramatic!"

"What...What were you going to say?" Shizuo asked, hesitantly. Izaya shook his head, and shrugged.

"I honestly don't even know. Live long? Prosper? Get yourself a damn girl friend? God knows you need one." Shizuo sighed and picked up the remote, turning on the television. Izaya tossed his head in his direction with a frown. "Really? Is this how we prepare to fight demons? Watching stupid variety shows?"

"It's better than listening to you run your mouth about nothing," Shizuo grunted, turning the volume up.

"Ouch, Shizu-chan..." Izaya was smiling, but there was nothing playful in his tone. "You know how hard it is for me to bare my soul. You should be more sympathetic."

"You should stop being such an asshole and say what you want to say," Shizuo countered. "Stupid flea."

"Ah, yes. It makes one wonder why you even bother, Shizu-chan," Izaya said in the same, dangerously cool tone.

"I bother, because you're my friend, even if I'm not yours," Shizuo said bluntly. Izaya stopped smiling, and faced the TV and there was silence again for a few moments. Shizuo let his mind go blank, trying to calm himself. He could feel this discussion getting heated rather quickly, and now really wasn't the time for stupid fights. He watched the mind numbing program, almost yelping in surprise when slender fingers clutched the fabric of his sleeve. He turned to the informant, who had his face cast downward and a grim look on his face.

"I think you're my friend," Izaya said quietly, not daring to attempt to face him. Shizuo smiled, feeling a warm flush in his face.

"Thank you," he said, reaching over and ruffling Izaya's hair. He took great delight in the pink that began to color the informant's face. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it? And you're not going to die. I won't let you. So just put those silly notions out of your head."

"Why are you so nice?" Izaya asked quite suddenly. Shizuo startled, withdrawing his hand.

"W-what?"

"Why are you so nice to me? You were nice to me even before that fight with Yoshi. Even when you found out who I was, you were still nice to me. Why?" It sounded like an earnest question. Shizuo cleared his throat, not really knowing what to say.

"Uh...I don't know. You seemed like you could use some help," he finally decided on.

Izaya's eyes narrowed. "Ah, I see. Because I'm just so helpless. Here I am now, blind and demons chasing after me. It's such a comfort to know you're here to rescue my sorry ass."

"Hey, what are you getting all bent out of shape, about?" Shizuo frowned. "Everyone needs help from time to time!"

"You're only my friend because you feel sorry for me and you feel like you have to rescue me from magic, demons, and myself!" Izaya accused, his voice rising with agitation.

"What the fuck are you talking about!" Shizuo demanded, angrily. "Are you saying I should just leave you here to fend for yourself? Would that make you happy?"

Izaya's jaw clenched shut, and he took Shizuo's glasses off and threw them across the room. Shizuo's mouth fell open in surprise. He'd never, ever seen Izaya loose his temper this badly as a human. "Fuck you, Shizuo Heiwajima, and fuck your pity!" He suddenly through back his head and laughed, sounding anything but happy. "You know, I honestly thought... But whatever! Guess us gods can be stupid, too..."

"What the-? You're not making any god damn sense, flea!" Shizuo rose to his feet, yelling. Izaya stared angrily at nothing, folding his arms, defiantly. "You're the one always dicking around, keeping things from me, never being anything but an ass! Well, guess what! I ain't a mind reader! So if there's something on your mind, you'd better god damn well just spit it out! I'm just a stupid neanderthal, remember?" That last part had come out in a nasty sneer. Izaya's frown deepened.

"I should have just let that stupid human shoot you," he muttered. Shizuo flinched, and blinked, before growling.

"Yeah, well, there you go. Like you said, even you can be a little stupid, sometimes. Guess I wasn't really worth saving, huh?" Izaya startled, as if he hadn't realized that he had said that out loud.

"Shizuo-" he began, reaching out for him, but Shizuo backed away.

"You know what? Forget it. I knew I wasn't good enough!"

"Shizuo, that's not it-"

"Shut the fuck up, Izaya!" he spat, venomously. "Shut shut the fuck up for once in your god damn life! You know, I actually _liked _you! Not because I felt like I had to, but because you made me feel like I could actually do something fucking right for once! But I was just being stupid again, wasn't I?" Izaya winced at his words, as if he had been physically struck.

"I'm sorry, I-"

"I don't want to hear it!" Shizuo snapped. "I never want to hear your freakin' voice again! It's annoying! You're annoying! Stupid, annoying, flea!" Under normal circumstances, Izaya would have chuckled at the redundancy, but stayed silent, his eyes glued to the floor.

"Please don't leave me here, alone," the informant finally whispered, still not lifting his head. Shizuo felt all of the anger seep out of him, being replaced by an overwhelming sense of disappointment. He actually had to blink back the tears gathering in his eyes.

"The fact that you even think I would do that, just because I'm angry with you, proves you really don't know me at all," his voice hitched, sadly. Izaya lifted his head in his direction, and Shizuo was surprised to see what actually looked to be extreme guilt written across his face. Shizuo shook off his melancholy and sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I lost my temper. Let's just forget about it."

"Shizuo, I don't think-" Izaya cut his sentence short when Shizuo's fist slammed into the wall, and he quickly looked back down at the floor, again.

"I'm going to the bathroom!" Shizuo announced, awkwardly, shoving his hands in is pocket and stomping in the direction of his bedroom. A small smile flickered across the informant's face.

"Send me postcards!" he chirped.

"Shut up, flea!" Shizuo warned, though he had to fight to make his voice sound angry. Once he closed the door, he immediately splashed cold water on his face and sighed. Damn...this whole demon business was really getting to him! They practically sounded like an old, married couple bickering out there! Shizuo shook his head and rolled his eyes. Maybe he had just been expecting too much. He wondered if Izaya would ever just be himself around him. "Heh, who am I kidding?" he snorted to himself. "This is Izaya we're talking about! Stupid flea..." _'that I can't imagine my life without, anymore...' _Shizuo gave another lengthy sigh at what he felt to be an impossible situation, and turned to the door. As soon as he laid his hand on the knob, he jerked it back in alarm. It was searing hot! Shaking his injured hand, he suddenly realized that there was an overwhelming amount of heat flowing through the cracks in the door frame, and he quickly grabbed a towel, and wrenched the door open. Smoke immediately poured into the bathroom, and Shizuo began choking so much, he could barely breathe. He drenched a towel in cool water and wrapped it around his nose and mouth, before racing to the living room. He immediately had to retreat, as a wall of roaring flames greeted him directly through the doorway. "Oh, shit!" he yelled, holding a forearm up to shield his face. "IZAYA!" He yelled as loudly as he could, growing increasingly terrified each second he was met with silence. Quickly taking the door off its hinges, he shut his eyes tightly and blindly charged through the wall of fire. Shizuo had never been so sure he was going to die, but the heat mercifully abated after a couple of seconds, and he found himself standing in the living room, near the back of the couch. "Izaya!" he called again, his eyes watering from the excessive smoke and heat.

"Over here!" he heard a strained reply coming from the furthest corner of the room. Izaya was pressed in the corner, trying to escape the flames that licked at his feet and coat tails, but every time he began to dart forward, the flame would grow higher, and he'd be forced back into the corner. Shizuo heard a low rumbling sound above him, and gazed upward to see a thick cloud of the smoke gather and begin moving swiftly towards the trapped informant.

"Izaya! Look out-" but it was too late. Before either could react, a skeletal hand darted out of the cloud and snatched up the informant by the hood of his jacket. Izaya yelped, struggling to break free, Shizuo caught the flash of his flick blade cut through the air, but it was to no avail. In less than a second, he was completely obscured by the cloud of billowing, black smoke. "Izaya!" His only reply was a terrified, ear splitting scream, and the sounds of the raging fire. Shizuo dashed to the corner the cloud hovered over, and lept into the air. His body collided with something solid, and he grabbed hold of it, as he impacted the wall. All at once, every trace of the fire vanished, leaving Shizuo lying on the floor with Izaya in his arms, completely confused. He quickly sat up. "Oi, Izaya!" he yelled, giving the informant a firm shake by the shoulders. Izaya's eyes popped open, and Shizuo's jaw dropped. His eyes were an almost unnatural shade of brilliant red. As Shizuo was gaping, Izaya smiled, sweetly, and wrapped his arms around the back of Shizuo's neck, pulling him close and catching his open mouth in a kiss. Shizuo blinked in surprise, and quickly tore his lips away. "What the-?" he breathed, stumbling backwards. The manic laughter that erupted from the informant sounded absolutely insane, as he slowly lifted himself off his back and crawled on his hands and knees towards the speechless blonde.

"What's the matter, Heiwajima-san?" Shizuo blinked at the effeminate voice emanating from him. "Isn't this what you want?"

Shizuo grimaced, backing away from the slowly advancing informant, who was obviously quite gone. "What did you do?" he demanded. Izaya's eyebrows shot high into the air, as a wicked and toothy grin spread across his face. He continued to climb onto Shizuo's lap, placing his lips next to his ear.

"I want you to be part of me," he whispered, and it sent a shiver down Shizuo's spine. He grabbed the back of Izaya's jacket, and held him at arm's length as he scrambled to his feet.

"You crazy bitch!" he snarled, giving the coat a shake. "You tell me what you did with Izaya, RIGHT NOW!"

Izaya's face pouted, before his smile quickly returned. He lifted a finger until it touched the tip of Shizuo's nose. "You're next," he whispered. Shizuo then watched in horror as the informant's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his body became completely lifeless.

"I-Izaya?" he stuttered, quickly laying the body back down on the floor, and checking for a pulse. It was so weak, he could barely feel it, but it was there. He reached over and lifted one of Izaya's closed eyelids. "Oh, no..." he muttered, running a hand through his hair in distress. Izaya's eyeballs were almost completely transparent, and it seemed to Shizuo they were fading by the second. This was bad! Shizuo quickly wracked his brain for what he should do. "OKAY!" he thought out loud. "Back to Shinra's, find the demon, knock her head off, get your eyeballs back!" he checked off a list to himself, as he grabbed Izaya's body and ran out the door. Now, if only he knew exactly how to go about that. Shizuo shook his head and forced himself to run faster. He'd promised he'd take care of him. There was no way Shizuo was going to let the creepy, demon woman get away with this! These thoughts firmly in mind, he almost ran straight into a very large, very Russian, very black sushi chef.

"Shizuo!" A booming voice greeted him.

"Ah!" Shizuo blurted, trying to skid to a halt, but accidentally losing his grip on Izaya in the process. The informant's body practically went flying, rolling until the back of his head hit a fire hydrant. Shizuo and Simon both grimaced and winced. "Eh heh..." Shizuo blushed, quickly retrieving the unconscious man from the side walk. "Good thing he can't feel that..."


	7. Chapter 7

_Violence in this chapter! Oh, my space heart! Sorry for the prolonged absence. It's just that time of the year, I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is always super crazy, i don't know why. Everyone wants to go to nut-bunny land, er something! :P Well, for those who are still sticking with this odd ball story, thankie! _

* * *

><p>"Shizuo! Why in such hurry? Look! Izaya so hungry, he pass out!"<p>

Shizuo blinked at Simon in wonderment for a moment and shifted the unconscious informant in his hands. "What? That's not what's wrong! In fact," he advanced until he was almost touching Simon's nose with his, "Do you know where Anja is? I need to talk to her, now!"

Simon whistled and took a step back. "Take it easy, my friend!" he chuckled. "Anja not here, right now!"

"She's not here? She's always here!" Shizuo yelled, desperately.

Simon's laughed deep within his chest. "Not so! Anja is in Bermuda, now."

"BERMUDA!"

"Vacation!"

"God dammit!"

"No worries! I call her on phone for you, yes?" Simon grinned. Shizuo would have gripped the man's shoulders and shook him if his hands weren't full.

"YES! Please! Call her, now!" Shizuo all but threw Izaya's body into Simon's arms after the Russian dialed a number on his cellphone, and quickly brought the device to his ear. It rang three times before someone picked up. "Anja? Anja, you there?" His eardrums were immediately assailed by loud, bongo music, and people laughing and yelling in the background. "...ANJA!" A familiar voice broke through the noise.

"Shizuo! Hello!" the older woman had to almost scream to make her voice heard in the receiver. "I am in BERMUDA!"

"Yeah, I heard!" Shizuo yelled back, growing more irritated by the second. "Listen, Anja, I need your help, again!" There was no reply for a few moments. "Anja?"

"Wha? Oh! Sorry! Shizuo, there are sooo many men with no shirt, here!"

"Stay with me, Anja!" Shizuo growled.

"Okay, okay, what you need?" the older woman sighed, sounding a little bothered, herself. "Wait, no tell, I guess. Izaya is in deep sleep?"

"He's completely passed out, yeah!"

"Ah! And is he missing anything?"

"Yeah, his fucking eyeballs!" Shizuo almost screamed at her, but he made a serious effort to lower his voice.

"Ah hah! I knew it! It's them!"

"WHO?"

"The skeleton women!"

'Skeleton women?' Shizuo immediately began panicking on the inside. He held the phone out to look at it, incredulously, before bringing it back to his ear. "Well...Well that just doesn't sound good at all!" he said, lamely.

"Oh, it TERRIBLE!" Anja confirmed, sounding anything but worried. "I very glad to be here and not there!"

"Not helping, Anja!" Shizuo warned.

"Okay, um, how to explain...Right now, Izaya is in spirit world."

"He's right here!"

"No, his ghost is in spirit world! Listen to me, now, skeleton women are twins, yes? They try to steal bodies to appear human, but to take something from you, they must trap you in the spirit world. You have to get Izaya back before it too late!"

"How exactly am I supposed to do that?" The blonde man smacked his forehead with a frown, already feeling a headache coming on.

"Mirrors. They use mirrors to enter and exit this world. Look where you last saw them. Find the mirror they used. They will be there."

"Mirror, huh? Okay, got it. What else can you tell me?"

"Absolutely nothing!"

"...Awesome."

"You worry too much! You will succeed! I have full faith that- OooooH! Shizuo! My dessert! It's on fire!"

"That's great, Anja," Shizuo sighed. "Thanks for your help. I gotta go save some little flea eyeballs, I guess."

"Tee hee! You so funny, my friend! Bye, now!"

Shizuo hung up the phone and traded it back to Simon for Izaya. The tall Russian gave Izaya a little pat on the head once his arms were free. "Izaya not so bad, when he asleep, eh Shizuo?" he chuckled. "What you do now?"

"I gotta get him back to Shinra's," Shizuo's voice was full of determination. Just as he was about to take off, running, a chilling voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Where the hell do you think you're taking my boss?" the voice was accusing, and deadly serious. Shizuo slowly turned to see a beautiful, young woman, dressed in a green sweater and a red skirt, currently trying to light him on fire with her eyes. "I'll have you know that the rat bastard hid his checkbook, so I didn't get paid, yesterday!" she snapped, folding her arms and tapping her foot. The light went off in Shizuo's head.

"You're Yagiri-san?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yes, and you must be 'Shizu-chan'. God, I'm already know and am consequently sick of you from his constant ramblings," she huffed. Shizuo's eyebrows shot high into the air, as his face flushed a little.

"Izaya...talks about me?" he asked, his voice very small. Namie just glared at him, anew.

"Wow, you are pretty slow," she drawled, rolling her eyes. "If you're heading to the doctor's place, I just came from there. Neither of them are home."

"Oh...Hey, Yagiri-san," Shizuo tried to put forth his most convincing smile. "Would you mind-"

"Watching him? Like I have any choice," she sighed, waving for him to follow her. "If I want to get paid this century, that is. Come on. We'll bring him back to his apartment."

Shizuo just nodded and followed. Truth be told, he was almost more afraid of Namie than of the skeleton women. He had to practically jog to keep up with her quick pace. She didn't speak a word the entire way, and Shizuo was far too nervous to strike up any sort of conversation. Soon enough, they were standing just outside Izaya's condo, and Namie swiftly unlocked and flung open the door. Shizuo stepped past her, heading toward's Izaya's bedroom. Once there, he immediately noticed that someone had cleaned the giant mess he and the skeleton woman had left behind. He brought Izaya to his bedroom and laid the lifeless form on the bed. Namie followed, and stood in the doorway with her arms crossed.

"My god, but he looks filthy. When's the last time he had a bath?"

Shizuo blinked at her. "Uh, I don't know, maybe day before yesterday?" Izaya had just hired her a few months ago, but he'd only ever talked on the phone with the woman until now. In fact, Shizuo had been to Izaya's apartment several times since he'd become human again, and he'd still never met her. Hell, maybe Izaya had known this woman a long time before she even became his secretary. One thing was for sure, though. Izaya was not keen on them meeting, but Shizuo could kind of guess why.

"Disgusting! I can't believe I'm sharing the same air with such a degenerate! I swear, if he didn't sign my paychecks..."

'That's why...'

"Ugh, I suppose I should probably do something about this," the brunette woman sighed, advancing towards Izaya's still form.

"W-what?" Shizuo asked, a little more than alarmed.

"Clean him up, Obviously! Why is he like this, anyway?"

"Well, it's kind of a long sto-"

"Never mind! I really don't give a damn! Can you just get him to wake up?" Namie eyed Shizuo fiercely. Shizuo gulped, before standing tall and giving a nod of his head.

"I'll get him to wake up! Don't even worry!" Shizuo affirmed, though he felt a little less confident than his voice portrayed. Namie gave him a nod back.

"Then go do what you have to do. I'll take care of him, here."

Shizuo nodded to her again and exited the room, relieved to be out of range of her piercing glare. He shivered. How in the world did Izaya work with that woman all day? Wait, he knew the answer to that. Pissing her off all day long sounded just like his cup of tea. The real question was, how could she stand to be around Izaya all day long? Izaya...everything about him was just so annoying. The way he smirked to himself all the time, like there was some private joke only he knew. The way he did some funny, half skip instead of just walking like a normal person. The way he had to have a nick name for freakin' everybody. The way he manipulated people into always doing whatever he wanted. The way his raven black hair fell across his face, and the way his eyes lit up behind it every time he saw Shizuo. The way something in Shizuo's chest leapt every time he made the informant genuinely smile... He was just so fucking annoying in so many ways! Shizuo groaned and ran his hands through his hair before lighting a cigarette.

'What the hell is wrong with me!' he scolded himself. 'Thinking weird things...well, these past couple of days have been pretty strange...Anyone would be a little off balance, right? Yeah... As soon as I save the flea, everything can just go freakin' back to normal.'

His mind quickly returned to his plan. A mirror...If what Anja had said was true, then there must have been a mirror somewhere in that building the night club was originally in. Shizuo headed straight for the abandoned building, once more. He found it exactly as he had seen it the previous time. There was a chain wrapped around the door handles with a thick padlock securing it. Shizuo flicked his cigarette on the pavement and lifted his foot. As he busted the door open with one swift kick, he heard a clap of thunder over his head. The skies had quickly flooded with black clouds, and he ducked inside just as a torrent of rain began to fall. The interior of the room lit up as lightning tore through the darkness with another, ear piercing crack. Shizuo grimaced, and rolled out his shoulders.

'Could this be any more like a freakin' horror movie?' he wondered, quickly making his way through the empty dance floor to the dark corridor he knew lay behind the door on the far wall. As if rising to the challenge, he was met with an electric pop and glass shattering when he tried to turn on the lights over the steps leading down. Shizuo blinked, and withdrew his hand from the switch. He suddenly felt a burning sensation from the stone around his neck, and looked down at it, curiously. A blunt force shoved him violently down the stairs, and he let out a yell as he landed in a heap at the bottom. Cursing, he sat up rubbing the back of his head, only to me met with the sight of Miyako towering over him, the light behind her illuminating the ax she held above her head. Shizuo just barely managed to pulled his legs out of the way of the blade, as it fell to the floor boards, implanting itself with a loud crash. "Holy fuck!" he breathed, scrambling out of the way as the ghoulish woman braced a long leg against the floor and yanked the tool free.

"How kind of you to stop by, again," her husky voice was completely calm, as she drew the ax back for another swing. "I know why you're here," she smiled, advancing toward him. "Do not worry. My sister will make short work of him, and he'll be back to you in no time at all! And now, there is something I need from you." She swung the blade dangerously close to Shizuo's knees, and he quickly jumped out it's path.

"You're not taking my friend's eyes!" Shizuo spat, circling her, warily. She eyed him, coolly, and turned to face him. "And you're not chopping off my god damn ankles, either! I guess you didn't get the memo on what's attractive here on planet Earth! You look like a walking freak show!"

"Don't be jealous!" she tsked, taking another swing. "And they're not for me. They're for my sister. I already have all that I require to exist in this world."

"I can fix that!" Shizuo declared, dodging the attack and grabbing hold of her arm. He wrenched the ax from her bony fingers and pushed the startled woman back. Wasting no time, he immediately brought the blade down onto her shoulder with a sickening crunch. The sound of her scream was so painful, it was almost enough to make him drop the weapon, as her right arm fell to the floor in a puddle of blood. She cradled her wounded shoulder with her free hand and seethed at him, her eyes growing large and black. "Uh oh..." Shizuo felt the air around him beginning to change. Illusions, again? "Oh, hell no!" He stepped forward, swing the ax horizontally like a baseball bat, sending it full force into Miyako's long neck. Her pupils quickly shrank as her head flew from her stationary shoulders. Shizuo watched it roll, tangling in her long, dark hair before hitting the side of the hall. He threw down the ax and staggered back, trying to keep himself from vomiting. My god, the things he had to do for...friendship. Shizuo shook off his sickness and stepped off down the hall with new determination. One down, one to go. He felt another burning against his chest, as he neared a dead end. The light barely filtered through from the end of the hall, but after his eyes adjusted, he could just make out a large, rectangular object, covered by a dark sheet. Ripping it off revealed what appeared to be a large mirror, but Shizuo didn't see his reflection. Instead, he spied a very frightened, blind informant on the other side.

"IZAYA!"

* * *

><p>Shizuo groaned and blinked, slowly sitting up. He immediately noticed that the hand he brought to his forehead seemed to be letting off a warm glow of orange light. He gazed stupidly at his new iridescent glow, before slowly rising to his feet. What he saw almost made him stumble back onto his ass. He saw himself, in the mirror, lying in the middle of the hallway, surrounded by broken glass. He grimaced when he saw the amount of blood flowing from forehead. Oh well...He'd have to have Shinra give him some stitches, later. Whatever. Shizuo turned and bounded off in the direction the skeleton woman had dragged Izaya. "HEY! DAMN, DEMON WOMAN! Got a bone to pick with you!" he yelled as loud as he could. The further he descended, the less he could see in front of him. Logically, he should have been heading back toward the steps in this inverted world, but it felt as if he'd been running a very long time, indeed. Suddenly, a familiar pair of blood red eyes flashed in front of him, and he felt himself be thrown against the wall as something hard and extremely cold wrapped around his throat. He growled, and lashed out with his legs, striking the demon woman in what should have been her thighs, but Shizuo was quickly realizing there wasn't much below the kimono. As he kicked at the fabric, he caught the image of white bone, which seemed to be the only thing that comprised most of her lower body. How did she even walk without muscles? Why was he even wondering about this right now? Shizuo composed himself and punched the smiling woman squarely in the nose with every ounce of his strength. Stunned, she stumbled back, dropping him. "Yeah! Weren't expecting me to hit so hard, huh? I'm not your average human, bitch!" he spat, quickly bringing his foot up to collide with her face. With an angry snarl, she stumbled to the side, only to grab his ankle in her vice like grip and immediately clamp down on it with all of her inhuman strength. Shizuo howled with a mixture of rage and pain as she literally began slowly crushing his ankle.<p>

"Shizuo!" Izaya cried out from somewhere in the darkness. His voice momentarily startled the demon, and she quickly glanced in the direction from which it came. Shizuo used the opportunity to brace himself against the wall and used his other foot to land a sound kick directly to her chest. He grinned when his shoe collided with something quite squishy. The demon hissed, and quickly withdrew, clutching at her injured body part.

"Oh yeah! Boob shot! I went there!" Shizuo roared, charging into her, sending both of them sprawling. In their struggle, her hand found the chain around his neck, and quickly snatched it off, as he rolled on top of her. Before Shizuo even knew what she was doing, the demon took the stone in her palm, and crushed it into dust. Shizuo stopped his struggling and gaped in fear.

**"Now you can never go back," **the terrible voice rumbled from all around him as she smiled up at him. **"Submit! I promise to make your death less gruesome! You stupid, stupid human!"**

To her surprise, Shizuo sat back and laughed, heartily. He stopped abruptly, glaring down. "Don't call me stupid." He gave her a good smack in the nose, enough to break it and send the back of her head into the wooden floor. He set his knees atop both her flailing arms and began pressing his thumbs into her eyes. Well, they weren't really her eyes. "I'll just be taking these back now, thanks," he muttered, as she began to scream, frantically rolling her head away from his hands. Shizuo grit his teeth and quickly dug his thumbs all the way into her sockets. With a satisfying pop, the eyeballs were set free and went rolling down the dusty floor before he could catch them. "Oops..." he said, watching them roll away.

**"I will kill you, human!" **the demon seethed, writhing beneath him. **"You and your friend will regret the day you were born!"**

She gnashed her teeth, tossing her head back and forth. Shizuo frowned. "Whatever...You're pathetic...," he sighed. "You and your sister. Oh yeah...I kinda killed her. I hope that doesn't make you too upset."

**"WHAT?"**

Shizuo didn't reply. He wrapped his arms around her head and gave it a violent twist. The demon stopped struggling, her head rolling to the side at an unnatural angle.

"Sh-Shizuo?" Izaya whispered, as if afraid of what the outcome of the scuffle was. He was slowly inching his way towards them from the darkness, his body becoming less and less transparent with every passing second. Shizuo stood up, wincing in pain as his ankle immediately gave out.

"I'm right here, flea," he smiled, though he knew Izaya couldn't see it. He wouldn't soon forget the immense look of relief that washed over Izaya's face, as the informant stood up and ran in the direction of his voice. Shizuo held out his arms as Izaya crashed into him, hugging him fiercely. "It's alright. It's all over, now," Shizuo tried to comfort him, and gently stroked his hair.

"Shizuo..." Izaya's voice shook, as he buried his face into his chest. "Th-thank you."

"Eh, you know...It's what I do. Punch a few demons. Save some fleas," Shizuo chuckled, and scratched the back of his head. Izaya didn't seem to be letting him go, and it was beginning to make the bodyguard blush. "Okay, okay," he gently extricated the extremely clingy man from his torso. "Come on. Let's get your eye balls and get the hell out of here. I think they went this way."

"Oh, gods..." Izaya muttered at the insinuation, burying his face in his hands. He stayed like that until Shizuo took a step, and then, much to the blonde man's amusement, Izaya immediately shot out a hand and gripped the back of his shirt for dear life. He let him totter along behind him until he located the missing body parts, and quickly retrieved them from the ground. Shizuo curled his lip a little, as he inspected the now, somewhat dusty orbs.

"For the record, this is one of the most disgusting things I've ever done in my entire life," he proclaimed, turning to face Izaya's blank face. He rotated the eyeball correctly and blew on it, before plunking it in an empty socket. It did a full rotation before settling to the front and immediately locking onto him. The smile that spread across Izaya's face was practically beaming.

"I can see you!" he yelled, happily. Shizuo laughed with relief and plopped the other eye in his hand, trying not to grimace at how weird Izaya looked with only one eye.

"Good! Then you can put the other one in! Ewe..." he wiped his palm on his jeans. "Flea eyeball goo..." Izaya glanced down at his dislocated eyeball in his hand, and suddenly looked like he was going to throw up. He swallowed, thickly, and tilted his head back, placing it in his other empty socket. It spun around before facing frontwards, and Izaya glanced up at Shizuo. The blonde man quirked an eyebrow. One of the eyes was being lazy, and roved to the left when Izaya looked at him. He reached down and bopped Izaya in the side of the head with his palm, and the informant yelped in pain. But when he opened his eyes again, they were both straight and in sync.

"What the fuck!" he growled, rubbing his sore head.

"You were crooked!"

Izaya shook his head, but he smiled. "Alright! Now how do we get out of here?" As soon as he said the words, his body began to fade. Izaya looked down in alarm. Shizuo smiled at him, reassuringly. He didn't sense anything evil about it; so he assumed that Izaya's consciousness was simply returning to his body. The real question was, how was he going to get back? He was pretty sure the stone was the thing that had let him get into the mirror, and now that it was broken, how would he return? Izaya looked at him questioningly, as he continued to fade.

"Bye, flea. I'll see ya on the other side."

"Why aren't you fading, too?" Izaya demanded, with evident concern in his voice. Shizuo shrugged.

"I'll figure something out. Don't worry about it. You need to get back in your body. Something tells me it's not good to be away from it for too long."

"No, Shizuo," Izaya grit his teeth, clenching his fists. "I don't like this. I'm not leaving you here. What if you can't get out?"

"You don't have a choice, flea," Shizuo reminded him. "Go home." Izaya was almost completely gone, now. Right before he disappeared, he gazed at Shizuo with a look of utter anxiety. Shizuo laughed. "Ah, don't look at me like that!" he chuckled. You worry too much!" he flashed him his most confident and cocky grin. A small smile tugged at the corner of Izaya's mouth.

"You'd better find a way back, you stupid neanderthal!" he scoffed, and then he was gone. Shizuo's smile quickly vanished with him. He limped over the the mirror and slowly sat down with his back against the wall. He stayed there for a very long time. The day became night, but due to the eerie glow of the realm he was in, he could still make out his body lying lifeless on the other side of the mirror. A horrible thought crossed his mind.

'Did I accidentally kill myself...?' he wondered. It seemed like it had been hours, and Shizuo hadn't seen his body twitch once. It didn't even look like he was breathing. Oh my, but this could be bad. At one point during the night, flashlights shined at the far end of the hall. Shizuo watched, curiously, as the three high schoolers he'd met the day before slowly approached his body. Their was a collective gasp. It seemed to Shizuo that for them to have advanced this far, Miyako's corpse must have vanished, and for that, he was grateful. He watched in mild amusement as the blonde kid poked at him with the tip of his shoe.

"Is..is he?" the blue eyed boy trembled, the beam of his flashlight shaking wildly about. The blonde one crossed his arms.

"Seems like it. Poor, old dude... Looks like he hit his head into the mirror, er something."

"Oh, wow," the girl with glasses clutched at her chest, staring down sympathetically. "We should call an ambulance..."

"Or we should check his pockets for money!"

"MASAOMI!" the other two shrieked in unison, making both Shizuo and the blonde boy jump.

"I was just kidding! Gah!" he rolled his eyes, whipping out his cell phone. "Come on, let's get out of here. I'm not getting a good signal."

"Kay...but, should we just leave him here?" the girl wondered.

Before they could decide what to do, there was a loud commotion from the top of the stairs, and all three of them jumped, backing against the wall. Shizuo heard another familiar voice. "Izaya! You're really in no condition to be running around!" Shinra chided. "Celty and I can deal with this just fine!" There was a frantic clattering of footsteps, and Izaya was suddenly there, diving next to Shizuo's limp body. The informant glared at the children with a fierce look, and cradled Shizuo's head on his lap, protectively. The three high schoolers held up their hands defensively, and immediately scurried away. "Oh my god..." Shinra muttered, eyeing all of the blood on the floor and the massive trauma to Shizuo's head. "Izaya, is he...?"

"No!" Izaya spat. "Now get your monster girlfriend down here and help him!"

"Okay, okay, calm down!" Shinra breathed, raising and lowering his hands. He wasn't even willing to argue with Izaya about the name-calling at this point. "Let me go get her." He quickly receded into the background.

Izaya turned back to look at Shizuo, his face softening. He closed his eyes and let his face fall forward, until their noses touched. Shizuo stood up from his spot on the floor and placed his hands against the mirror to watch. The informant's eyebrows were furrowed, and he shuddered and sniffed, as a tear rolled down his cheek. Shizuo watched it fall onto his face in the mirror and lifted a hand to his cheek. He could swear that he felt it. He felt the oddest tugging sensation from deep within him, as the informant continued to silently cry over his body. "Please, Shizuo," he whispered, and Shizuo felt his breath ghosting against his ear, even as he watched it happening in front of him. "You've got to wake up..." Shizuo looked down at himself, and noticed that he was beginning to fade from the spirit world. He looked back up and saw with great joy that one of his eyebrows was twitching beneath Izaya. "You've got to wake up, because...because I never told you..." Shizuo pressed his face flat against the glass, his heart beating, wildly. "I never told you that I... I..."

Footsteps distracted them both, and Izaya quickly sat up, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. The soft look was gone, replaced by a cold, slightly angry expression. With disappointment, Shizuo noticed that he was no longer translucent. Damn... Izaya stepped back and let Celty create a litter from her black shadows, and Shizuo watched as she carried his body out, Shinra and Izaya following behind. As he was leaving, the informant paused and turned, gazing longingly at where the mirror had been. Shizuo felt something within him melt, and his eyes began to water. He hit the glass with his fist in frustration and sank back down to the floor, their fading lights leaving him surrounded by the darkness.

* * *

><p><em>Hooray! Epilogue next time! FINALLY! :D Poor Shizu-chan... All alone in the dark. So tragic. <em>


	8. Epilogue

_"What are you doing here, mister?"_

Shizuo cracked an eye open. He'd laid down long ago and ceased moving all together. How long it had exactly been was difficult to tell. After seemingly pacing the endless hall for days, and being met with nothing but darkness, the blonde man had finally started to give up. Catching sight of his hands curled against his chest, he noticed that they had become pale gray in color. It was fitting. It had been so long since he'd been in his body, he was forgetting what it felt like to even be alive. Whatever strange heart beat he imagined in the spiritual realm was growing fainter and fainter. He no longer had any sort of light surrounding him and blended in almost perfectly with the bleak surroundings. He didn't even know if his body was still alive. Izaya could have been lying. He could have been dead when they found him. He could have been dead, and Izaya had just been unable to accept it.

'Although, if that's true... Man... You think he would have been a little more upset...,' Shizuo thought, bitterly.

Having these melancholy musings interrupted, his eye roved up to see a small girl dressed in a school uniform, with cropped, dark hair, gazing down at him with a happy expression. Shizuo just shut his eyelids, again. He'd seen quite a few spirits wander by in all the time he'd spent in this damn hallway. The somewhat hopeless man had learned a long time ago that they were of little use to him, and often more annoying than anything... Like this little shit who had stooped down and begun poking him in his cheek. "Bug off," he growled, turning on his other side so that his back faced her.

_"Mister, what are you doing here? You're not dead! And you're not one of 'them', either..."_

Leave it to children to point out the obvious. Even so, he couldn't help but feel a small tug on his almost nonexistent heart at the sound of her sweet and innocent voice. He peeked over his shoulder at her large, curious eyes. "Yeah, I'm not. I'm just stuck here."

_"Ooooh!"_ her eyes grew even larger, if that were possible. _"You got lost."_

"What do you mean?" Shizuo sighed, sitting up. "I'm not lost. I know where I am. I just don't know how to get back to my body. I seem to be trapped in this fu-...darn hallway."

The girl glanced around, curiously. _"This is a hallway?"_

"What does it look like to you?"

_"The bottom of the lake in the park."_

Shizuo blanched at her. 'Well, that's pretty awful...,' he thought, with a grim expression. The girl stood back up and laced her hands behind her back. She just smiled at him, again. It was kind of eerie. "Tell me, have you ever met anyone else who was, 'lost'?" he asked, hoping to gain some insight into his situation. She nodded her head and swung her body from side to side. It would have been kind of cute if she wasn't some drowned, dead girl in the bottom of a lake. "Well, how did they get out of here?" To his dismay, she shook her head back and forth. "They...didn't?"

_"Nope!"_

"Well, that's just freakin' great!" Shizuo muttered, plopping back down again.

_"Awe, cheer up, mister! After all, there's lots of ways in and out of here. You lost your one way. Maybe you could find another?"_

Shizuo sat back up. He liked the sound of that. "You got a great attitude, kid!" he smiled, feeling better than he had in a long time. "But I don't really know what to try, at this point." The little girl seemed thoughtful for a moment. She then shut her eyes, and the image of a kindly woman appeared, with a plate of cookies in her hand. She looked to be in her early thirties, and was gazing down at someone unseen, a warm smile lighting her face. Shizuo could tell it was an illusion, but he was intrigued all the same. "Did you just do that?" he wondered at her.

The girl opened her eyes, and the image faded. She grinned, triumphantly. _"Yeah! If I imagine really hard, I can see my mom whenever I want! And sometimes, I think she can even see me!"_

"God! That's really nice...and creepy...all at the same time!" Shizuo laughed, uncomfortably. The girl tilted her head as if she didn't quite understand, but she laughed with him all the same.

_"Why don't you try, mister? Maybe you can find your body that way!" _She waved happily at him, before skipping into the wall. Little, freakish, ghostly thing that she was, Shizuo was kind of sad to see her go, but he shook those thoughts from his head and sat up, breathing deeply with his eyes closed. He had some kind of second sight, right? Maybe if he just concentrated hard enough, he could forge another connection with the living world. Shizuo furrowed his eyebrows, deep in thought, and tried to imagine the sights and sounds he heard every day before he became trapped. He tried to imagine the floor boards creaking, as he climbed the stairs back into the night club and crossed the large room. He could see in his mind the large, double doors which led outside. He desperately tried to remember what it was like to be blinded by the sun, and he unconsciously raised a hand to his eyes. Fall would be on it's way. Maybe the air would be a little crisper, and the leaves would be starting to turn. There'd be the sounds of cars and crowds teaming in the streets...

Izaya's smirking face flashed across his mind's eye. Shizuo sighed in frustration, as the image he'd built up in his head immediately crumbled. "Dammit!" he roared, clenching his hair in his fingers. It was just no use! His fists came crashing down into the floor, as he came closer to his wit's end. This was all that god damn flea's fault! He'd been trying so hard to hold on to the self-sacrificing, gut instincts that had landed him in this mess. He'd been forcing himself to be at least satisfied with the situation, because at least Izaya had made it out okay. And yet, little by little, the creeping anxiety of missed possibilities and moments he'd never experience began to seep into his consciousness. Izaya was all he saw, anytime he tried to think, no matter how much he tried to expel the informant from his mind altogether. Even when they were separated by dimensions, that god damn flea was still pissing him off! Well, he was through playing the martyr! Now he was just mad as fuck!

Shizuo ground his teeth and stood up, clenching his fists. He sent his foot through the wall with a cry of rage. Any spirits in the surrounding area quickly fled from the furious aura he was emitting. It figured that, in what were probably the final moments of his life, Izaya's face would be the only thing he could think about! It just god-damn-figured!

"IZAYA! YOU FUCKING FLEA BAG!" he screamed into the darkness. His voice thundered through the hall, giving off a strong echo in the empty space. Suddenly, something small and black darted past his shins. His mind lit up in recognition. But it couldn't be...

_"Bark! Bark!" _Something wonderfully familiar and annoying yipped joyously down the hall.

"Get back here!" Shizuo commanded, immediately taking off after the apparition. He could barely see the white tip of a furry tale bouncing in the distance. Shizuo breathed deeply and pushed himself to run faster. "You little shit! Look at what you've turned me into! I'm going to wring your furry little neck!" Even as he said the familiar words, a maniacal grin broke out across his face.

_"Yip!"_

"Yeah, you'd better keep running, cause you know what's gonna happen if you stop!" Shizuo ripped a street sign that suddenly appeared before him out of the ground, and sent it flying in the fox's direction. It nimbly lept on top of the pole with it's tiny paws, and used the force to propel itself forward. Shizuo could feel gravel crunching under his feet and he heard horns blairing and the rumble of exhaust from traffic. The gravel gave way to pavement, and the blonde man began to see buildings in his peripheral vision. He didn't let that deter him, though. He was far too busy trying to maim a certain, little black fox, currently mocking him by jumping leisurely left and right as he ran.

_"Yip, yip!"  
><em>

"God, you're annoying!"

_"Bark!"_

"Yeah, you! And you don't even have to do anything, anymore! That's what's really annoying about it!" Shizuo huffed, as they rounded a tight corner and ran down an alley way. "I mean, yeah, you used to kind of get under my skin with your snide comments and always having to be an ass about everything! But HELL! Right now I kind of miss it!" He yanked a post from a fence and threw it somewhere in the fox's general direction. It crashed into a telephone booth. The fox panted, bearing all of it's teeth in a large grin. With a whip of it's tail, it took off again, heading into a building. Shizuo growled, and followed suit. When had things become like this between them? The blonde man could not recall, but slowly, a terrifying realization was dawning upon him.

'It doesn't make any sense...'

He tore through the doors to the stairs, catching a flash of the fox's tail a floor above him.

'I can't believe it...' The thought made his mind whirl. 'When did he become the only thing I ever thought about...?'

_"Bark, bark!" _

Shizuo used his shoulder to ram his way into what was beginning to look like a familiar hallway. The fox danced mere steps ahead of him, stopping abruptly in front of a door. Shizuo skidded to a halt. They were standing in front of Izaya's apartment.

_"Yip!" _The fox climbed up his body and settled on his shoulders. Shizuo felt soft fur wrap around his neck, before the fox let out a contented hum and vanished. He absently touched the skin that the fox's tail had curled around.

'When did I come to need him so much?'

He stretched his hand out toward the knob, noticing that his skin was no longer colorless. It was once again radiating a soft glow, as he slowly turned the door knob.

'Izaya... When did I start loving you?'

The door swung open, and Shizuo was engulfed by a blinding light. He brought his forearm to his face to shield his eyes. Warily, he blinked through the painful tears and gazed about Izaya's familiar living room. He immediately became aware of raised voices and a commotion upstairs. Feeling fearful for some reason unbeknownst to him, Shizuo slowly ascended the stairs, keeping his eyes trained on the open, bedroom doorway. As he reached the top, his eyes grew large with amazement. It was quite a scene.

Celty was holding a furious Izaya back with her black shadows, which the informant tried to cut at repeatedly with his switch blade, his eyes blazing. What had to be the most vile things Shizuo had ever heard in his life were pouring out of the irate man's mouth, but what startled him even more was the overwhelming emotions of anger and sorrow flowing out of him in waves. They hit Shizuo like a ton of bricks, making him take a step back from the force. A very tan and very upset looking Anja was flailing her arms wildly about in front of Shinra, who was pinching the bridge of his nose in agitation.

"You must wait! You must wait little longer, okay?" the older woman was pleading, desperately. "Shizuo will find way, I know he will! He very smart boy, he figure something out!"

"I understand how you must feel," Shinra was using his best bedside manner, which wasn't much, in an impossible situation. "But you have to understand. Technically, he's already gone. There hasn't been one glimmer of any sort of brain activity in over a month. He's a vegetable!"

"It mean nothing! He alive in spirit world, I tell you!"

"Listen to the fucking woman, Shinra!" Izaya screamed from the corner where Celty had completely subdued him. Shizuo quickly figured out what was going on, and had a hard time being angry at the headless rider for her actions. If she hadn't held him back, Izaya would have no doubt killed the bumbling doctor.

"It's not right!" Shinra yelled above them, stomping his foot. "He's a corpse that breathes! If we'd never inserted a feeding tube, he'd already be dead! Look at him!" Shizuo looked where Shinra had thrust his finger, and all of what he assumed to be breath rushed out of him. His body was lying in Izaya's bed, hooked up to various, medical apparatus. Shizuo grimaced. He really didn't look that great.

'I guess that's what being in a coma for over a month does to you,' he reasoned. His face was pale and sunken, and it looked like he'd lost weight. Even so, what was most terrible was how completely still his form was. He really did look dead.

"It's cruel!" Shinra continued. "It's cruel to keep him alive like this!"

"If you do it, Shinra," Izaya growled, straining against his bonds, "I will hunt you down, and you know I will find you!"

"Save it, Izaya!" Shinra snapped, folding his arms. "You don't scare me. How about you try to stop being so damn selfish for once in your life!" Shizuo winced. That had been a little harsh. The sound of steel clattering to the wooden floor drew his attention back to the informant. At the doctor's words, the knife had slipped from Izaya's loose fingers and fallen. His head hung low, his dark hair covering his eyes, and Celty slowly withdrew her shadows from around his wrists and torso and took a step back. The informant slumped forward, bracing himself with his hands against the floor.

"Izaya?" Anja reached out to him in concern, but he slapped her hand away. She frowned and stood up, straight. "You no give up, Izaya! I know Shizuo no give up on you!" she scolded, but he wouldn't answer her and kept his face hidden between his bangs and his chest. The old woman sniffled, and began tottering toward the door. Shizuo tried to step out of the way, but he didn't move in time, and Anja passed through part of his arm. She paused, and curiously glanced over her shoulder. To the bodyguard's utter shock, she was peering directly at him! Not knowing what else to do, Shizuo gave her a silly, lopsided grin and a goofy wave.

"Hey," he whispered. Her blue eyes flickered about the room for a moment, and she gave him a warm smile.

"Hi," she mouthed. She then furrowed her eyebrows and tossed her head in Izaya's direction, impatiently. "Go!" she commanded, without sound.

"Yes, ma'am!" Shizuo winked. Anja smiled again, and cleared her throat.

"At least give boy time to think, yes?" she asked Shinra from the doorway. Shinra rubbed his chin, thoughtfully, and after reading something typed on Celty's screen, nodded.

"Fine. Celty and I will be back later tonight for your answer, Izaya. Remember what I said," he picked up his medical bag and began to follow Anja and Celty out the door. The doctor suddenly stopped, and his shoulders sank low. "I'm sorry I couldn't give you a happy ending, Izaya," he said, his voice very low. "I really did everything I could." Still receiving no answer, he followed the women to the steps, shutting the door behind him. Shizuo watched them go, before turning his attention back to his friend. Izaya was still crouched on the floor, completely unmoving. Mere seconds later, his body began to shake, and he slowly lifted himself to his feet. Now that Shizuo could get a better look at him, sans all of Celty's black shadows, Izaya didn't look too good, either. He looked as if he'd lost more weight than Shizuo, and there were large, dark circles under his eyes. Still trembling, he slowly dragged himself to the bed. It was a pitiful sight to see, and Shizuo could feel the harsh stinging of the defeated man's anguish and uncertainty washing over him. Suddenly, there was nothing in the world he wanted more than to see Izaya smile. He gripped his chest, feeling that same pulling sensation he'd felt the first night he was trapped at the dance club, as Izaya slowly laid down on his stomach on the bed, placing his chin on Shizuo's shoulder.

"Neh, Shizu-chan," he whispered, stifling the tears that threatened to break out at any moment. Shizuo swallowed the lump in his throat, and let the strange force pull him closer to the bed. "You've been asleep a long time..." his voice cracked, and he took a deep, shuddering breath. As the informant exhaled, Shizuo could feel his warm breath travel over the side of his face and neck. "And...and I don't know what to do. I've been...such a selfish person!" The last part came out in a rushed sob. "And I can't ask your forgiveness! But I'm asking you one more time," Shizuo felt as if his heart stopped beating when Izaya pressed the side of his face to his, "Please wake up!" Shizuo hunched over, as if in pain. The pulling sensation was beginning to reach every part of his body, and he felt an immense sense of pressure. He grit his teeth, and shut his eyes, wanting only to feel Izaya next to him for the rest of his life. "I don't want you to die, Shizuo!" Izaya continued to cry into his neck. He could feel the warm tears tickling his skin, as they fell to the sheets. "I love you!"

Something within Shizuo felt like it was shattering, before the sensation of plummeting from a great height overtook him. A loud crashing filled his ears, before the whirlwind of feelings came to a screeching halt. He felt an enormous impact, and then there was silence. Shizuo slowly opened his eyes, blinking up at the ceiling. The first thing he noticed was how much the light hurt his eyes. The second, was how much his throat ached. It felt as if someone had made him swallow glass! The third thing he noticed was the warm body, currently crying on his shoulder. Izaya had been too overwhelmed to notice Shizuo's sudden return to consciousness, and it was with great effort from being immobile for so long, that the blonde man slowly lifted his opposite arm and brought it down to rest on top of Izaya's soft, black hair. The smaller man froze, as Shizuo began to pet him much the same way he'd always done, back when they first met. Gradually, he felt Izaya's body relax as he continued to run his fingers soothingly through his hair.

"...I like the pets...," Izaya whispered, somewhat awkwardly. It occurred to Shizuo that he was no doubt weighing the possibility of whether or not he had heard his tearful confession, and was seeing if he could play it off. What a flea. Shizuo drew a large sigh, and decided to let him get away with it...for a while.

"I know you do," he whispered back, his voice extremely hoarse, but gentle. He felt Izaya curl tightly into his side, clutching at the blanket over him.

"You...really fucking scared me!" Izaya chuckled. He tried to make it sound nonchalant, but Shizuo could hear more tears gathering behind it.

"I would never leave you, alone," Shizuo said, as his dry lips cracked a smile. "You're my flea."

"And you are my neanderthal," Izaya asserted, and Shizuo could feel his small chin nod into his side. "And you know what they say about fleas and neanderthals...," he yawned, his voice sounding very sleepy, all of the sudden. Shizuo's smile broadened. The poor guy looked like he hadn't slept in days, and he was glad his friend could finally relax enough to get some rest. And besides, sleepy Izaya was very cute, indeed.

"I'm pretty sure they don't say anything at all about it," Shizuo would have laughed if his throat would have allowed it. "But maybe they should. At this rate, we'll be legendary..." Shizuo also yawned, his eyes beginning to slowly close.

"...You're really something, Shizu-chan," Izaya murmured, before drifting off into a deep sleep. Shizuo glanced over at him, tucking his arm around the now slumbering man's shoulders, and drawing him closer.

"You're really everything to me."

_end._

* * *

><p><em><em>_Hooray! Another story finished! Thanks so much to everyone who read it, and especially to those who reviewed! There were a couple of reviews I couldn't message back, but I wanted you to know that I loved reading them! Special thanks to my buddy, Slayers64! You always pump me up, hooah? Oh, and stay tuned for Part III, unofficially known as...'THE HOOK-UP'! XD Swag! _


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